Hyperlight
by tipto19
Summary: As the Created enforce 'Peace', John 117 must face an old enemy... alone, in a barren corner of the Milky-way. All the while trying to figure out this mysterious elementary force, which only he can access. Post Halo 5. First ever story.
1. Past, Future

**7th March 2516, 6:42 PM, Earth. **

"Make a wish! John!" A women called out to her son. "And do it quick, it looks like your father is going devour that cake like a monster any second... with the burning candles." She laughed.

"I am hurt. You see me as a monster?" A man replied with a false hurt tone.

"Ok, Ok... 3,2,1" The child named John said as he blew off the fires of the candle.

"What did you wish for John?" His father asked.

"I won't tell you! It won't come true!" John smiled, which turned into a slight frown. His parents knew what the frown meant.

"John. We know you wanted to spend your birthday back home with your friends, but what can we do. Daddy's job required him to come here. Only a few more days and you can see your friends again." His mother explained. John nodded, but his frown was still there.

"Listen to me, John" His father said softly. He then knelt down to be eye level with his son.

"I know you're too young to understand these things but I am going to tell you anyway. Everything will never go as planned. There will always be problems, and we must always adjust and face them." The man said with a smile.

"The universe works in mysterious ways, my son... Which is why I have only one request for you. Always face those problems with your chin up and head held high. Never back down and never run away from them. And there are will be moments when you are backed up against the wall... When you will feel that you cannot go on any longer." John listened intently, his forwn completely gone. "Do you know what you have to do then?"

"What?" The boy asked, clearly curious.

"I want you to ball up your hands, close your eyes, breath and give everything you have. Because in those situations, where defeat is just around the corner, One Final Effort is all it takes to bend fate to your favour. Will you do that, John?" His father asked.

"Yes!" John replied enthusiastically.

"That's what I like hear. Now cut the cake... I don't think I can wait any longer. After that we'll go to the park for stargazing. Apparently, there's some famous comet that'll pass by Earth tonight."

"OK!"

"You always know how to increase morale, don't you?" The woman commented.

"Well... I am the leader of my squad after all." The man said with a small smile.

"I have to make sure their morale is always high. Even when things look grim."

Soon after, the small family went to the nearby park, which was full of activity as other people also gathered to watch the famous comet.

The family found a quite place and laid down on the grass, looking at the stars above. Usually, this would not be possible due to light pollution, but the UEG decided that once every 76 years, the electricity of all non essential buildings will cut of for 76 minutes, so that people can witness the comet.

"Mom, Dad"

"Yes, John?" Both the parents replied.

"I had a dream last night. I was flying through space. I could see stars passing by me. Then I saw a planet. It was blue and green. I was floating for a while before I began falling towards it. I fell through the clouds and then I hit the ground. But I didn't feel any pain." John explained. (To get a visual input, watch the last part of M83's 'Wait' Music Video)

" Ahhh... the mind of a child is a beautiful place. Well John, dreams are usually influenced by what you see and hear. Your dreams must be influenced by those cartoons you've been watching." His mother said.

"But... It felt so real." John mumbled.

"Well, there are dreams that feel very... real" His father said with a grim smile. "But they're just dreams. It's always better to let them flow. There is nothing to worry about." The man said.

'I hope you never have to experience the nightmares of war, my son.'

John was about to say something but was stopped by some commotion. They looked up at the sky and saw the comet passing over head. John soon fell asleep after the comet had passed by.

**2558, ****Sanghelios**

On top of a high overlook stood a warrior clad in green armor. His memories before the super soldier program hazy and almost non-existent...with the exception of two. The night of his 5th birthday and the faithful day on the playground. Even though he forgot their faces, he still remembers his father's words. But right now, nothing helped. No matter how hard he balled up his hands, no matter how long he kept his eyes closed and no matter how many breaths he took. He couldn't muster one ounce of willpower or courage to even look at his fellow humans and Sangheili in the eye, let alone face this new enemy. This enemy who manipulated him and betrayed the trust that had been built on the face of imminent death and insanity. This new enemy who had ripped out his heart from his chest and drove an ice cold energy sword through it. This new enemy whose name was Cortana.

At first it was shock, followed by sadness and finally, hopelessness... which was now slowly leading towards anger. How could he let himself be trapped. How could he let his feelings get the better of him.

'Huh... feelings' He mused bitterly.

'Maybe being human isn't a really good thing... I guess I was the machine after all. I allowed myself to be controlled by a rampant AI... like a simple machine.' He thought painfully. He knew he could never allow his emotions to get the better of him again. The anger was growing, so he decided to pour all of it into a resolution. He will deal with this new enemy, even if it meant terminating Cortana himself... Even if it meant completely losing his emotions... his humanity. The warrior was so busy in his own world that he didn't notice the female warrior in white armor approaching him from behind. It was not until she called him that he was broken from his thoughts.

"Chief, the Infinity should be here in a few hours. You should get ready." She said.

The warrior in green didn't say anything. He simply turned around and began walking towards the camp. As he passed the female warrior, he stopped and began speaking with his back to her.

"Both of us should've listened to Del Rio that day." He said. After which he continued on his way. Immediately, the female warrior knew something was very wrong. The man's voice had a lot of edge to it. Something that was not present before. What worried her even more was that the man's voice lacked any form of emotion. It sounded lifeless... not human... machine-like.


	2. A Great Journey Begins

When the chief returned from the overlook he was stiff, and tried his best to avoid Eye-contact. He either kept his head downward or looked at some random direction. He was stiffer and his movements were more mechanical, like it was for the first few months after Sam's death. The change was very noticeable, and everyone, including the elites and the grunts had noticed it, and it worried them, especially Halsey and Blue Team.

All the humans were looking at the sky. The Infinity was supposed to have arrived an hour ago. John on the other hand was in his one world. Even though he was looking at the sky, his mind was racing a marathon. He was thinking... planning. He needed to stop her, but how? She knew everything about humanity and its past. He was again brought out of his thoughts by a tap on the shoulder. He turned around and saw a grunt, whose name he remembered was Dimkee.

"The Arbiter wants to talk to you. Please follow me" The grunt requested. The chief grunted and followed him to one of the tents.

"He is inside" The grunt said and left.

John entered the tent and saw the Arbiter talking to another Sangheili behind a table... who by the looks of it was some type of a blacksmith/armourer, or at least the Sangheili equivalent of it. The two elites saw him and the blacksmith left but not before hand the Arbiter a box and a long stick like thing wrapped with cloth.

"Come, Spartan" The Arbiter said as he called him towards the table.

"I never got the chance to properly thank you everything you had done in the ark." He said.

The chief grunted.

"All of our lives were at stake. Thanks is not necessary. Besides, you and the Sangheili helped too." He said plainly.

The Arbiter flashed him the Sangheili equivalent of a smile. "That maybe so, but I must follow tradition." He said as he handed John the wrapped stick.

"Open it."

John did as the Arbiter said. The wrapping cloth fell to the ground revealing a spear of Sangheili design. It was long, sleek, simple and lacked the big prongs on the top like the ones that existed on the spears used by the Honor Guards. The spear was silvery white in color with a slight golden hue. John then noticed a small sangheili button. He pressed it and two golden energy prongs activated from the sides near the top, forming a trident, with the metal tip acting as the central prong. As he was inspecting the spear, the Arbiter pushed the box towards him. John understood what the Arbiter wanted him to do and opened the box. Inside, there was some type of a device which was also of Sangheili design.

"It is an energy greatshield attachment. One of the best blacksmith in Sanghelios crafted it after consulting with your Doctor. It should be compatible with the armor you're wearing. The spear was also crafted by him. And I almost forgot, the spear can be charged by Sangheili as well as human charging ports."

John paused for a few seconds and looked at the spear/trident and shield. The first thing that came to his mind was that he didn't deserve them. He was the very reason why the galaxy was facing this new crisis. If only he had listened to his CO that day, all of this could have been avoided. Shame and guilt began hitting him with the force Infinity's MACs. How could anyone forgive him.

"Thank you... but I don't think I deserve this" John said, trying his best to hide the shame, but it didn't fool the Arbiter.

To Thel'Vedam, shame was an old friend, and he had experienced what the Spartan... his friend was facing.

"Spart--John" Thel corrected himself.

The chief flinched ever so slightly as the Arbiter called him by his name.

"Do not let shame and guilt consume you. I tell you this not as the Arbiter of Sanghelios, but as a friend... as Thel'Vedam. Someone who bears the mark of shame."

The chief remained silent for a few seconds before responding.

"I... will try." He said. It didn't convince the elite standing across the table. The Arbiter was about to say something but was interrupted by the holo pad on the table flaring up. It showed that something very big was about to exit Slipspace. The chief automatically tensed up but relaxed a little once the Sangheili radars recognised the ship to be the UNSC Infinity.

He then took the device, which was as long as his gauntlet, from the box and attached with it to his left gauntlet using the clasps. He noticed that a shield icon had appeared on his hud. He then used his CNI to activate the shield. The energy greatshield drew small amount of power from his suit. The shield was hexagonal in shape and was large enough to cover almost the entire front of his body (Think of the difficulty settings shield). It was the same color as the energy prongs of the spear; which to his relief was able to magnetise to his back and still left enough room for a rifle. They then heard the sound of Pelicans flying overhead.

"I guess it is time for us to part ways." The chief stated.

"For now... Come, I'll walk with you." The Arbiter said as the two warriors exited the tent. Both of them were surprised to see many elites volunteering to join the Infinity, even though they had just won a war. All of them said something along the lines of redemption and Captain Lasky accepted them without a hitch as he knew that at times like these, any form of help was greatly appreciated. The Infinity had left Sanghelios with eleven elites, including Usze'Taham, which made a certain scarlet spartan suspiciously happy; as well as 031 Exuberant Witness and an Unggoy defector named Yabda the Merciless. The elites and the grunts were housed on S Deck along with the 24 other elites which were already present in the Infinity.

**Infinity, Unknown location, Two weeks later. **

It had been two weeks since Blue Team, Osiris, Palmer, Halsey, Exuberant, Yabda and the elites were picked up from Sanghelios. The entire crew of the Infinity was jumpy and on edge. They were effectively blind and deaf with no plan or place to fall back to. There were frequent disagreements and heated arguments among the high ranking ONI, UNSC and UEG officers present in the ship. Something they did agree upon was that their first priority was to resupply. The Infinity was about to dock and resupply when the Guardian attacked, after which it was forced to flee. They had only about five to six months worth of supplies, which was not even half of its maximum capacity of about two years. Their second priority would be to find Admiral Hood, who apparently along with Admiral Osman managed to escape before the Guardians activated its EMP. Roland received the message of their escape from BB moments before the Infinity entered slipspace. The message also stated that BB would contact them as soon as they were able to. Another thing they had to figure out was the masterchief's behaviour, or rather, the lack of it. It had been two weeks since he came on board the Infinity... and it had been two weeks since he had spoken to anyone. He refused to take off his armor and began to isolate himself from everyone, including Halsey and Blue Team... avoiding interaction with anyone and everyone. He would pop up at odd hours either to eat at the mess hall or to work out (In full armor) at the gym, after which he would disappear to some obscure corner of the ship; where the cameras couldn't see him.

'How long has it been since I have talked to anyone... How long will I keep on doing this." John thought to himself. He was laying on his back in one of Infinity's cargo hold behind a literal wall of crates. This small space had become his safe haven for the past two weeks. Safe haven from stares of everyone in this ship. He was used to being stared at, but this time it was different. This he felt those stares as if they were bullets penetrating his skin. He had been thinking of ways to win this fight, but every plan led to a dead end. Cortana knew everything about him, how he would plan, how he would strategies. Hell, she even knew about most battle strategies of the UNSC, she was even responsible for many of them. Never in his entire life had he felt this useless. He knew he was compromised in multiple ways. He knew that he had become a liability... and it drew him insane, to the point that even breathing had become difficult. He had to get out of here... out of this ship and get his head together as outlandish thoughts like giving up and giving in had crossed his mind multiple times.

'I need to leave this place. I'm a danger to everyone around me. I won't let anyone else die because of me. At least anyone on this ship. Cortana is looking me... if I could somehow lead her away from Infinity. But how?'

It was then that he heard a few people talking. They probably didn't know he was there. He didn't want to eavesdrop, but his enhanced hearing meant that he had little choice.

"Damn we have only five months worth of supplies... God knows how long we'll be in space." A male voice stated.

"I know right. One of my buddies from a higher office told me that the AIs have taken control of every single star system that has humans in it. Be it the rebels or UEG." Another voice said.

"The higher ups have been arguing for the past three hours in the central command room on where to resupply." A third voice said.

All of a sudden, there was a brainstorm inside the chief's, well, brain. He abruptly got up and revealed himself, making the technicians jump.

"C-Chief!" One of them exclaimed, to which he simply nodded. John was on his way to the nearest elevator when he turned around and walked back towards them.

"Do you have a spare 5mm screw driver and a 5mm Allen key?" He asked simply.

"There should be a few extras in the tools station. Wait here, I'll bring them." One of them said. Around three minutes later, he came back with the things the chief asked for. John thanked him and headed towards the central command room. On his way he got multiple stares from the crew. Although... he didn't care as hopefully, this would be one of the last times he would have to endure it. Half an hour later, he finally arrived at his destination. The door to the central command room opened to reaveal a very exhausted looking Sarah Palmer, who was also surprised to see him.

"Chief. Long time no see." She joked.

"You're heading in there?" She asked pointing backwards. John simply nodded.

"Well, I should warn you that its a complete Shitstorm inside." John could hear shouting coming from the other side of the door.

"I have no clue how Lasky is sane right now. Oh and by the way, nice spear." She said as she walked towards the elevator that he used.

As soon as he entered the room, it became silent as everyone stared at him. 117 was a man of action so they knew that there was a good reason for him to show up.

"Meridian." He said simply.

"We could scavenge supplies from Meridian."

"Do you think its safe." One of the UEG officers asked.

"Yes. Cor--The Created are policing star systems that have intelligent life in them. Sloan had already started to evacuate the moon even before we arrived. Besides, the Guardian present there has already been taken by them. Logically speaking, there would be no reason for the Created to go back to Meridian."

"I agree." Locke, who was sitting in one of the chairs around the central table, announced... surprising John.

"Myself along with osiris were one of the last people to leave Meridian. The moon was completely evacuated. And there should be enough supplies in Meridian Station and Pinnacle Station."

"Does anyone have any objections?" Lasky asked out loud. He got no response.

"Very well, Roland. Set a course to Meridian."

"Already on it" The AI replied.

"ETA, three days."

John then quickly walked to the captain.

"Sir, I would like to help with the scavenging operation once we reach Meridian. I have been feeling very useless as of late." He said.

After a few minutes of thinking, he Captain replied.

"Alright, permission granted. And chief... Its good to have you back." Lasky said with a small smile.

The chief nodded.

"I'll be in my room. If anyone needs me." He said.

On his way to his room, he met Halsey. She was about to ask him questions but he simply said that he was too exhausted for now and would talk after the ship had resupplied. Which brought his thoughts him to another path. Could he ever forgive Halsey for betraying the UNSC? Sure, there might have been some misunderstanding, but aiding M'dama? He promptly stopped himself from thinking about it too much as this was probably the last time he would see her and Blue team.

'Blue Team... I should talk to them.'

After looking for a while in the S-Deck, John finally found his team in the central hall out of their armors. Everyone's eyes were on him as he approached them.

"Hey...Its been a while" Linda smiled.

They talked for a while, at least an hour or so. By the end John gave them the Spartan Smile and went back to his room.

Three days had passed. Infinity was about to reach Meridian.

_"Alright, everyone listen up. I'm going over the plan once more" _Lasky said over the coms.

_"Once we arrive at Meridian, five Stridents along with multiple pelicans will go to Meridian Station, and the other five Stridents will go to Pinnacle Station. Once the Stridents make landfall, I want everyone in said Stridents to scavenge for food, water, batteries and anything useful. By then, the Infinity will station itself equidistant to the two stations. __I want everyone back at the Infinity within one hour and not a second more. You hear me?"_

He asked and everyone in the underbelly Strident docks shouted 'Sir, yes Sir'

_" ETA in 5, 4, 3," _Roland announced as everyone tensed up. Hoping and praying that the Created were not present there.

_" 2, 1. Go! Go! Go!"_ Roland shouted. Immediately, all the ten strident class heavy frigates deployed, followed by pelicans. The frigates then made their way to the designated targets. John was in a frigate named 'Sceptre of Twilight' which was headed for Meridian Station.

"Commander" John called out to the captain of the Sceptre.

"Chief."

"Sir, I am faster than the marines and ODST, I will scout the edge of base for supplies. If I don't reach the Sceptre in time, I will request for a pelican to pick me up. Please don't wait for me."

"Roger that." The captain of the ship replied.

"Listen up, We'll make landfall in five minutes. Everyone, look alive" The captain announced through the mic.

One hour... This had to be Lasky's longest, most agonising one hour. The Infinity was where he said it would be, with engines turned on and slipspace drive still active, ready to make a quick exit. If a guardian arrives now, he would be forced to abandon those men and women on the ground. On top of that, he would lose ten strident class frigates, multiple pelicans and the masterchief. But alas, the hour was over and everyone was returning to the capital ship.

"Roland, is everyone in?"

"Yes sir. I can see all the IFF tags present in the ship."

"Alright, get us out of here." He said with a long sigh.

"Never thought that black void of slipspace would be the only place where I would feel safe." He muttered.

"You and me both... you and me both." Roland added.

**24 hours ****Later**,** Infinity's Main command room. **

Eveyone was in a good mood after discovering that the Infinity had been maxed out on supplies. They even had extras to last them three months more. The scavenging operation was a success. All of it possible because of the suggestion of the Masterchief.

"Roland, where is the Masterchief?" Lasky asked.

"His tag says he is currently in storage bay number 6."

"And he hasn't left that place for 24 hours?"

"No sir."

At that moment Kelly ran in, looking very distressed. She gained everyone's attention.

"What's the matter?" Palmer asked.

"Ma'am, the janitor who was cleaning the Chief's room found this note on his table... I don't know to make of it" She said handing the note to Lasky, whose eyes widened upon reading the note.

"Roland, send someone to storage bay 6 and locate the Chief, NOW!"

"Y-Yes sir!" Roland responded, clearly startled by the sudden outburst.

"What's the matter?" Palmer asked.

"Take a look yourself." Lasky handed the note.

'_I'll be going my own way now... I've been compromised. But I will find a way to stop this, even if it costs me my life... I promise._'

Before Palmer could say anything. Roland appeared on the Holo table, also looking very distressed.

"Sir, the techs found nothing but an IFF tag...And I just checked every single second of CCTV footage of the past 25 hours... The Master Chief never returned from Meridian."

There went everyone's good mood.

"I Hope you know what you're doing" Lasky said under his breath.

**Meridian **

Sand... Sand was all he could see as he walked across the desert. He had found some old cloth and managed to turn it into a cloak to prevent sand from going everywhere in his armor. Not that it would damage the armor, No... he hated removing sand. After walking a few more kilometres, he could see a little smoke in the distance. His destination was just on the horizon. He kept on walking, his cloak flowing in the wind. He didn't bring much with him, only the Spear/Trident, the shield, Cortana's chip and the hand gun that once belonged to Jacob Keyes. He only brought three clips of ammunition for the gun. He had made a decision, now it was too late to go back. After walking for around 30 hours, he had finally arrived at his destination... Apogee Station. Although the Guardian tore everything apart during its activation, only the central part of the station was damaged, leaving the other parts surprisingly unharmed. John made his way through the debris, and dead bodies and finally found what he was looking for. The first thing that helped him on his journey of betrayal. And hopefully the thing that will help him on his journey of self discovery... The ONI Acrisius.


	3. Stellar Dream

**24 Hours later, ONI Acrisius, Unknown Location **

John slowly opened his eyes and found himself lying under a tree. In the distance he could here waves. It looked like it was night as he saw two moons, one grey and the other bluish white, through the branches of tree. He slowly got up and looked around him and saw that he was on a beach... But it wasn't just any beach. John was almost overwhelmed my a sense of nostalgia when he found himself in a place he hadn't visited in more than forty years. He remembers this place, he remembers playing here, he remembers swimming here, he remembers 'making friends' with the local animals. He remembers coming here every night when he dreamt. Ever since the first time he had that dream, his parents suggested him to let them flow, and so he did... and John didn't regret one moment of it. He then realised that the last time he was here was the night before he was 'conscripted'. He gazed up at his 'friends' ... the two moons who he named Keeran and Verenus. And the world he was standing on, he named Hope. He also saw something that truly unnerved him, even though he was aware of it. John moved his head all the way back to see the Milky-way. As a kid he never paid any attention to it, thinking that it was only the Milky-way as his childish imagination perceived it to be. But now he was not sure as the Galaxy looked exactly how it did when he was on the Ark. John raised his hand towards the sky as if to touch the galaxy, but was speechless when he saw his arm and hand. They were small, as in tiny and skinny. He then realised that he was much shorter than he actually is. He quickly rushed to the shore to see his reflection, only to be shocked once again as his reflection was that of his childhood self.

'Strange.' After pondering for a few minutes he shook his head.

'All of this is just a dream anyway.' Again he began to think. When was the last time he had allowed himself to sleep and dream. All these years he had only experienced the cold blackness of the cryo tank. And whenever he did sleep, all he had was nightmares. Some about the Covenant, some about the Flood and some about... Cortana. And if by chance he had a dream, he would only dream about his failures. Again, he shook himself out of his thoughts. John then looked up to see the galaxy and saw something very strange. He saw that the stars that were just a outside the galaxy were, for the lack of a better word, forming bridges among themselves. These bridges then extended towards the outer edge stars of the galaxy, forming complex networks. These networks began expanding at faster than light speeds throughout all the stars of the Milky-way, until all the arms began to glow brightly.

John always thought that after all the things he had seen in his entire life, it would be impossible for him to be amazed. But here he was, speechless at the beauty of, well, whatever the hell was happening. Something that amazed him even more was that he was able to understand those intricate systems and networks of the stars, even though it should have been impossible... especially from the place he was observing it. He could understand which of stars formed networks with all types of stars and which formed network with only specific type of stars. And then something even weirder happened. The arms began to glow even more until they seemed like they were solid streaks of light. These streaks then began to emit smaller streaks which converged near the galactic centre. There, they began to spiral until they formed one large column... which was heading towards him at very very high speed.

In just a few seconds, the column of light reached John. He felt warm, not emotionally, but physically. John looked through the brightness and saw that everything, even the moons were engulfed within the column of light. Seconds later, the warmth disappeared and was replaced with absolute and unadulterated physical pain. Immediately john dropped to the ground as he tried to use all the pain ignoring methods he was taught. Nothing worked, he felt as if his body was being torn apart atom by atom. He couldn't even scream. All he did was curl up into a foetal position, begging for this dream, no... this nightmare to end. And it did.

John jerked up from the bed, sweat making his skin shiny. He thought it was over... But it wasn't. Only seconds later, he began experiencing the same pain he had done in his dream. As he began to convulse. A few seconds later, the pain began to come in waves. John, knew he couldn't handle much more of this. Hell, it hurt less when he was getting the augmentations. The pain was so great that he felt like throwing up. Fortunately, the washroom was only a few feet away from the sleeping quarters of the prowler. He made his way to the bowl and began throwing up. Even after throwing up his dinner from last night, the pain was still there. Alas, he couldn't bare it anymore and passed out on the floor of the washroom.

**5 hours later**

John groggily opened his eyes to see the lower part of the toilet bowl. Then without warning, he got the sudden urge to throw up, again. He bent over and began throwing up, but this time, it was blood. After vomiting out at least half a litre of blood, things finally calmed down. John slowly stood up. Surprisingly he felt comfortable and warm, as if he had taken the best cold shower in the galaxy, despite the ordeal he went through. He closed his eyes and the memories of everything that had happened the past few days came flooding back. He remembered when he pried the IFF tag out of his armor and stuck it to a crate, he remembered when he hid in one of the buildings and waited for the Infinity to leave. He remembered when he walked through the sand to find the Acrisius. And finally he remembered stocking up on food, water, fuel, electricity, weapons and ammo; and setting a random slipspace destination before falling asleep.

John quickly did his morning routine and walked directly to the health centre of the prowler. The health centre was as big a telephone booth, but had all the latest technology in it. John entered the small chamber and selected a full body evaluation. After which he waited patiently for the report.

'It has to be some native virus or bacteria I picked up on my way to Apogee Station. That's the only explanation. Even the MREs were within date.' He thought.

A few minutes later, the screen attached to the door of the chamber beeped twice and a robotic voice began to read the report.

_"Report:_

_Muscle condition- Perfect_

_Blood condition- Perfect_

_Bone condition- Perfect_

_CNS Condition- Perfect_

_NS condition- Perfect_

_Digestive system condition- Perfect_

_Respiratory system condition- Perfect_

_Urinary system condition- Perfect_

_Reproductive system condition- Perfect_

_Brain condition- Perfect_

_Viral, bacterial, fungal infection/disease - Not detected_

_Benign or Malignant tumor- Not detected_

_Final assessment- Body in best possible condition."_

John read the report in disbelief.

'What is happening?! The pain I experienced. Was it all in my head?!' He then closed his eyes again.

'What ever... At least its over.' After which, he went to the storage room to get an MRE, he was absolutely starving. On his way to the storage room however, he noticed a few things that he didn't before. For instance, his body felt better, lighter, stronger and more agile. He was also relieved from pain and soreness that he didn't even knew existed until they were gone. He felt like he was back in his prime. Something that did weird him were his senses. Not that they had sky rocketed or anything (they did improve), but it was almost like he had gained another sense. John swore he could feel the slight disturbances of light as he walked through the central hallway of the prowler, as though he could visualize the interior of the rooms using nothing but the light disturbances. Instead of thinking too much, he quickly and quietly ate his MRE and went to the cockpit. He put the Acrisius in a random slipspace direction with a time duration of 24 hours and entered slipspace.

"Back to business." He said to no one in particular.

John, with a cool head, now began going through all the directions by which he could defeat the created.

Nearly four hours later, he finally had a solution, or at least he hoped he had, that being... He needed to find a way to cut Cortana off the Domain. He needed to severe her connection to the Prometheans and the Guardians. How? He had no idea. According to Halsey, the Domain exists everywhere in the milky-way. It would be nearly impossible to isolate her from it. And even if he did find a way to isolate her, how would he even find her in the first place. The Domain is huge. She could be anywhere. After rubbing his temples for a while, he got up and went to one of the armory. He grabbed the Spear.

'Well, at least I can get some practice with this.' Fortunately, the room was just big enough from him to practice using the 8ft spear.

Every second of his practice/workout made him more and more agitated. That old feeling of being useless creeping in. He was getting angry at himself. He felt the shame and guilt crawling back as he swung the spear from side to side, taking out imaginary targets by slitting their throats, grinding his teeth harder and harder. Then, he remembered what his friend had told him. John finally began to calm down.

'Calm down... There is still hope...compose yourself.'

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.

.

'That's it... I could compose myself and take Cortana out from within the Domain.' The moment he said that, his chest felt heavy in the worst way possible.

'Has it really come to this.' He thought sadly, the heaviness still present. He closed his eyes, balled up his fists and took deep breaths. And when he opened his eyes, they were filled with inhumane resolve.

'I made a promise to stop all of this, even if it costs me my life. Even If I have to become a machine to keep that promise.'

Just then, the prowler shook lightly. He knew what it was... The prowler had just exited slipspace. He quickly checked the clock and saw that it had only been eleven hours since he entered slipspace, thirteen hours earlier than the prowler should have exited. Something was wrong. John quickly rushed to the cockpit and checked the monitors, only to see the one thing that brought back a lot of memories... mostly bad.

A Halo ring. Something that was even worse, was the message that he received.

The screens became slightly static, and then-

_"I am *static* 007 Upper Echelon . Monitor of Installation 02. *Static* The whole ring is damaged and contaminated. If you want to provide assistance, please land on the designated island.'_ A robotic female voice announced. As a way point appeared on the screen.

"Contaminated" John growled.

He knew what 'Contaminated' meant...

**A/****N**\- explanation as to how chief ended up near a halo ring this fast will be provided in the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed. Btw constructive criticism is always appreciated.


	4. Broken Halo

**Installation 02**

John slowly maneuvered the prowler towards the designated waypoint. As he entered the atmosphere of the ring, he could see that the environment of this ring was more 'Wild'. It was stormy, with jagged rocky mountain ranges and splashes of green on the 'continents'. There were floating ice bergs and and the oceans were more rough and unyielding. From what he was able to observe, this installation was around 65% water. as he moved under the stormy clouds, he finally caught sight of the island he was requested to land on. It big, not as big as the continents, but big. It was at least 30Km long and 11Km wide. The waypoint was pinging him towards the centre of the island, where a Forerunner structure was visible. He gently landed the Acrisius and exited it. Seconds after which, the monitor of the installation appeared.

"Hello, I am 007 Upper Echelon. Monitor Of Installation 02. Are you here to provide assistance?" She asked.

"I'll see what I can do." He replied, although he was still a little unsure about trusting her, considering nearly all the AI he had interacted with the past few years turned out to be evil in some way, with the exception of Roland and Exuberant Witness.

"Marvelous!" The moment she said that, the sky lighted up as a bolt of lightning struck the tip of the structure.

"You should get in quick, it seems like another storm is approaching. But first let me do a quick scan of the vessel." Before John could protest, Echelon quickly went to the prowler, scanned the thing in less than three seconds and came back.

"Quickly! Reclaimer! The wind is picking up!" She said as she floated towards the building, wanting not to face the storm, John followed her.

As he entered the building, he noticed multiple sentinels guarding the place.

'Shouldn't the sentinels be trying to contain the Flood?' He thought to himself.

'Something's fishy. Better be careful.'

John mentally kicked himself when he realised that he didn't wear his armor. After walking for approximately ten minutes, they reached a familiar room. The control centre. Showing the holographic version of the ring.

The monitor then turned around and faced John.

"I presume you have questions."

"Yes, I do. But first, what is the situation?" John asked.

The monitors sphere drooped downwards and her blue light became dim, as if to show defeat.

At this, John became concerned.

"What's the matter?"

The monitor looked up, and then turned towards the hologram of the ring.

"See for yourself..." She said in a defeated tone.

Soon after, large red splodges appeared on nearly every continent of the ring, with red diamonds appearing in the centre of the four biggest splodges. John's quick mind immediately understood what the red meant.

"Are those..."

"Flood? Yes"

"And the red diamonds?" John asked, even though he had an idea about what they were.

"An intermediate stage between a fully fledged Gravemind and a Proto-Gravemind." She deadpanned.

One of John's worst nightmares had come true.

'_This is not your grave, but you are welcome in it' _

John felt a chill down his spine when remembered the first time the Gravemind spoke to him. John never truly faced the Gravemind in combat. He knew he couldn't beat it. This time there were potentially four of them.

"How did this happen?" He asked breaking the silence. The monitor did not speak, but simply showed him. A display appeared which showed a massive Covenant fleet exiting slipspace. It consisted multiple CCS and CAS ships. He was sure that they were Covenant as the ships were Purple in color. The video then changed, showing all of the ships landing on the different continents.

"I tried to warn them, the Covenant as they called themselves... But they didn't listen. By the time I deployed the sentinels, a Proto Intermediate Gravemind had already formed, which allowed it to access Neural Physics, although to a lesser degree. But it was enough. It manged to corrupt all the sentinels I sent to its location. Those sentinel then began destroying the sentinels that were trying to contain the outbreak. The Flood was spreading at such a rapid rate that I had no choice but to activate Halo's active defence network and destroy all the vessels, so that it could not escape the ring. After which, I came to the control room along with the remaining sentinels. This place is relatively safe... But I do not know for how long. Every day, the Proto Intermediate Graveminds move toward each other. If any two of them merge, they will have enough organic matter to form a Gravemind. And if all of them merge... They will initiate the first stage of becoming a Keymind. But the worst thing is that the flood managed to use the corrupted sentinels to destroy the frequency emitters required to starve them. The emitters can no longer be repaired unless brought back to the Ark. But I haven't received any signal from Installation 00." She sounded defeated, sad even. Upon hearing this, John felt a little guilty.

"Most of Installation 00 was destroyed... The flood discovered its location, and had already taken over the central part of the installation. We had no choice but to destroy it using an unfinished Halo." John stated.

"Then this installation has lost its purpose." She sounded even sadder. "And so have I."

"Damn." Was the only thing John could say. He knew what being left without purpose felt like. He had experienced it during his 'Vacation' after the Phoenix incident. He could empathise with the Monitor to some extent. But this was not a time for melancholy. He had to find a way to stop the flood and the soon to be Graveminds.

'But how?' He asked himself for the third time this week. Everything looked grim... And then, he found a sliver lining. Perhaps he could convince Cortana to form a temporary alliance. This had to work, she knew all too well what the flood could do, even to AIs.

"I think there is a way to stop this. But for that, I need to leave. I'll be back with support as soon as I'm able to."

The monitor perked up, and her light became brighter after hearing this.

"Thank you! Very much!" She exclaimed.

John was about to return to his prowler, but was stopped by Echelon.

"You should wait for a little while. You won't be able to cross the atmosphere due to the storm." John nodded. A sudden thought came to his mind. How come humans never found this installation; considering it was close to multiple human colonies.

"Echelon, before the Covenant, did any human come to this place?" He asked.

"No."

"Strange..."

"What is 'strange'?" The monitor asked.

"This ring should be surrounded by Human colonies. The closest one is around 36 hours of slipspace time away... and the prowler I used isn't the fastest thing."

"No... There must be a mistake. It is protocol that every Halo ring should be located 1000 light years, as you call your unit, away from any planet which isn't a gas giant." She replied.

John, thought about what the monitor had said... He wanted to believe her, but...

"Echelon, do you have some type of a galactic map?" He asked.

"Yes." She replied. Seconds later, a 3D projection of the Milky-way appeared.

"That blue ping is our location." She said.

The moment John saw the ping, his heart dropped. This ring was located in the stellar dead zone between the mid section of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm and the end section of the Sagittarius Arm... More than half a galaxy away from the Orion Spur.

"This... This shouldn't be possible. How did I cover such a large distance so quickly?!" He exclaimed.

"I was in the Orion Spur just a couple of hours ago." He pointed towards the Spur.

Both of them were silent for what seemed to be hours. Until Echelon spoke up.

"Aaha!" She exclaimed.

"You must have entered a slipspace convergence.(Completely made up by me)." She said.

"A what?"

"A slipspace convergence. They are holes, or rather, paths left within slipspace when something very big, in this case a Halo ring, is moved through it. My creators thought about using this method for travel because of its speed, but decided against it as the time durations were inconsistent. From instantaneous to multiple months. But it never exceeded 6 human calendar months. You seemed to have entered one of these convergences when you started your jump."

"Then there is still hope. All I have to do is retrace my steps and go back the way I came."

"I'm afraid, it is not that easy." She said as her light became dimmer like before.

"These convergences are extremely difficult to find. You'd have to be very precise. You could be looking for years and still not find it. They are nearly impossible to locate without the proper sensors." She paused, "This Installation had the required sensors... but they were destroyed by the Corrupted."

"So that's it then..." He muttered.

They were doomed... He was doomed, and with him, the entire galaxy. There was nothing he could do now. The Covenant ships were destroyed, which meant that he couldn't overload the reactors to destroy the ring. Most of sentinels were corrupted. And somewhere far away, the Created are wreaking havoc, blissfully unaware of what was coming. It was not like he could warn them. The prowler wouldn't even make it pass the dead zone, let alone cross the galaxy. He was cornered, without strong backup and without a place to fall back to. So he did what his dad told him all those years ago.

He closed his eyes, balled up his fists and began taking deep breaths. Then, he came to a realization. Resistance against the Created is possible. Resistance against the Flood wasn't. He has to stop the Flood. It didn't matter how he would do it, but he had to... Just like that, the fate of the Galaxy rested upon his shoulders once more, but he didn't care, especially now that he was feeling stronger and faster after his painful little ordeal. Right then, the control room became red. A holographic image of the island appeared, the image zoomed out to reveal a sizable number of Corrupted coming towards them.

"Oh no." Echelon muttered.

"They'll be here in fifteen minutes. We have to run!" She exclaimed, clearly panicking. Run where? Perhaps into the lower levels, or even escape using the Reclaimer's vessel.

It was at that moment when John looked at the monitor, fire and determination filled in his eyes.

"No, we need to fight." He said as he walked towards the exit.

"Get ready."

**A/N** How and why the covenant were present in the ring will be explained in the next chapter.


	5. Revelations

John quickly ran through the halls towards the Acrisius, with Echelon floating behind him. He ran through the stormy weather and put his armour on in record time. He took a DMR and the spear and rushed back outside into the raging storm where he was met with Echelon and a small squadron of Sentinels.

"Can you sync up with my armour?" John asked.

"Let me see... There!" John Then began hearing Echelon through his helmet coms.

"I need you to do something... Take control of my prowler and move it into the facility. There should be enough space in the hallways to accommodate it."

"Okay...give me a moment." Echelon floated towards the prowler and after a few seconds, it turned on. It then took off and slowly hovered through the massive doors and into the facility itself. The monitor then floated back to John.

"Done... These Sentinels will assist you." Echelon said turning towards the small squadron of Sentinels. But John had something else in his mind.

"No. I have a better plan. I want all the Sentinels to station themselves behind every entrance of the Control Room. I'll deal with the Corrupted. Just make sure that nothing gets in; But if anything does get in, destroy the prowler." Echelon didn't reply for a few seconds.

"Are you sure you can do this?"

"100 per cent. I've been in worst situations. Trust me." John stated with a smirk, although no one could see it.

"Alright..." She replied, still sounding a little unsure.

"Good, because there a few other things you have to do. I want you to feed me data about everything that you are able to see from the control room directly to my CNI and into my optics. That includes their numbers, their positioning, et cetera. Also, are there any forerunner weapons here?" He asked.

"Yes, there is an entire armoury present here. Suppressors, Binary Rifles and other weapons."

"Great. I want you to send me ammo or weapons via a sentinel. Now, they'll be here any moment. Get inside, and close all the entrances."

"Good luck Reclaimer." Echelon entered the facility and all the doors and windows(?) were being blocked. First by a physical door, and then by a hard light barrier. He then felt a slight burning sensation behind his head, where the CNI was implanted. After which Echelon spoke.

"Reclaimer, I won't be able to feed you the information you asked for unless they come within range. I think this is due to the technological limitation of the CNI. I will, however, be able to tell you the direction from which they'll come from." An arrow then appeared on his HUD, which he followed accordingly.

"I will mark the Corrupted sentinels as red dots... they will appear once they are in range. Any friendly sentinel will appear as blue dots." She said as she cut the transmission.

John was soon left alone. The storm was raging and didn't seem like it would dissipate anytime soon. The sky was frequently lighting up due to the lightning, which was followed by thunder. John held the DMR tighter with every lighting strike, not because of getting startled by the lightning, but because of the anticipation of the battle ahead. It seemed as though nature itself was testing him. His heart rate was starting to increase. Then, a single red dot appeared, followed by ten, then twenty, then fifty, then one hundred. The number on his HUD kept climbing up until it stopped at four hundred and thirty.

The second he was able to make visual contact, he opened fire, destroying the first sentinel within four seconds. John knew he got their attention. The sentinel's original target was the control room, but now they were focusing on him. The fight had begun. John immediately began sprinting towards the sentinel's so as to dodge their plasma beams. When he got closer, he was able to see that the sentinel's usual blue color light had been replaced by a sickly green. It also looked like the sentinel's had some type of organic matter oozing out of them.

'Huh... so this is what flood corruption looks like.'

John thought while barely dodging a plasma beam.

'Now is not the time for deep analysis.'

He kept on shooting and destroying the Corrupted. The number on his HUD was decreasing. As he fought the sentinel, he noticed another thing. These sentinels, unlike the ones he fought before, were smart... very smart. Not only were they forming strategies; they were also learning his combat style and were exploiting the gaps in it. These sentinels were working in perfect synchrony to take him down.

'All of them seem to have the same brai-oh...'

John was lining up for a shot when

_click, click, click._

He quickly reached down for another magazine but realised that he was all out.

He quickly activated his shield and ran towards a boulder to take cover.

"Echelon, I need a weapon." He said through the coms.

"_Right! It's on the way!." _

The Corrupted were closing in on him... he could sense them coming his way... John then realized that he had been using his 'sixth sense', i.e being able to detect disturbances of light, subconsciously during the fight.

'How did I not notice this... Now is definitely not the time' He told himself as right now, he needed to move. John detached the spear and activated its twin plasma prongs. The moment one of the sentinels floated over the boulder, John used the trident to pierce straight through it, destroying it immediately. He then jumped on top of the boulder and holding the end of the trident, swiped left to right, taking down three sentinels.

'Hah... damn.'

A blue arrow then appeared on his HUD prompting him to turn around. He knew what it was. John, with all the strength he could muster, threw the spear towards a large cluster of corrupted sentinels. He didn't bother to check how many it took out, but instead leapt from the boulder and ran towards the friendly sentinel. The friendly sentinel dropped a Suppressor and lots of ammo. He picked them up and resumed the battle, which became a vicious cycle of dodging, shooting and reloading. Under normal circumstances, the more he would kill, the easier the battle would become... This was not normal. The more he killed, the smarter they would become which in turn made it more difficult for him. Things were getting out of hand and John knew it. The Corrupted were making things tighter, giving him less breathing room as they were now predicting his every move. Slowly but surely, they were closing in on him until finally, John got hit by a plasma beam.

"Need... to be more random... more unpredictable." He growled.

There was one way to do that... Using pure brute force instead of perfected moves. It will take a toll on his body and stamina, but if he wanted to live, he would have to do it. So he did. With a battle cry, John charged straight towards the horde of sentinels, attacking anything that moves on random, with extremely sporadic movements. This continued on for three hours until finally, the counter on his HUD became zero. He had won.

"_You... WON! This is amazing! The battle was amazing! I never thought I would see any of those vile sentinels defeated!" _

"Don't celebrate yet. We still have the masterminds to deal with." He said with a slight chuckle.

_"Yes! right. I'll open the door."_

John looked around the scrapyard he had just made. Remains of sentinels, along with the organic matter littered the area around him.

"Echelon, send a few sentinels to clean this place... the Corrupted were carrying some type of organic matter. It would be wise to burn them."

_"Right away." _

The storm was gone by now. It was late afternoon when the battle began. But now the star was meeting the ring's horizon and night was approaching. John took one last glance around him and noticed the spear sticking out of a downed sentinel. After retrieving it, he went inside the structure. On his way, his thoughts drifted to the battle. He knew something was off about his body. He was tired, yes... But after fighting the way he did, he should have been completely exhausted. There were only two possible ways to explain his increased endurance. First was the possibility that he had underestimated himself, which was very unlikely. The second was that the 'dream' had altered his body. Which reminded him... was that even a dream? or something else entirely.

On top of apparently increasing his endurance, making his body feel and work better and improving his normal senses, the dream seems to have given him an extra sense. The ability to detect light disturbances. It was strange... The sense itself was like a combination of touch, sight and sound. John decided not to think about it anymore. Whatever happened didn't affect him negatively. That was enough, for now at least.

After walking for a few more minutes, he finally reached Echelon.

"That was amazing! Honestly, I was not sure if you would have been able to fight all of them by yourself. But you did! Speaking of which, what are the 'worse situations' that you've been in?" She asked.

"Well... Flood infested Installation 04, Flood infested satellite city, Flood infested Earth city and Flood infested Installation 00. " He replied.

"Wow."

"Speaking of which, I met a Gravemind six years ago, but he wasn't able to control the sentinels. Do you think that there is a reason why?"

"Six years..." She pondered for a few moments before speaking up.

"It was a theory that the Flood are able to access the Domain. But I guess it is a fact now. The Domain was inactive until not too long ago. After the Domain was reactivated, the Flood were able to access it, which in turn made them capable of corrupting the sentinels... Perhaps if the Domain was inactive, I would have been able to contain the outbreak." She explained.

"The Domain" John said while gritting his teeth.

"The source of the Galaxy's problems."

"Anyway, what's our next move?" Echelon asked, slightly alarmed by John's sudden mood change.

"We need more sentinels. Right now the Flood have the numbers advantage. Is there any way to produce more sentinels?"

"Yes. There are multiple fabrication facilities present on this installation. But you will have to do some work..."

"Go on"

"When I fled, I hard reset nearly all of the facilities present on this ring. To activate them, we would have to restart and reprogram the facilities." Echelon stated.

"Can't you just do all that from here?" John questioned.

"Unfortunately, it is against protocol for a monitor to reprogram any of the ring's facilities. Fortunately, a Reclaimer can reprogram." She said turning to fully face him.

"I... I'm not exactly a computer scientist." John said with slight embarrassment. Echelon slightly giggled after hearing this.

"Haha! you don't have to be. I'll write all codes and transfer them to a data chip. All you have to do is insert the chip into the station computer. The computer will recognise you as a Reclaimer and give you full access. The data chip will take care of everything from there. Besides, when the time comes and your Geas triggers, you will know everything."

"Well... that's good, I guess." Then, an idea struck him.

"Say... can these fabrication facilities only produce sentinels?" He asked.

"No, these are multipurpose fabrication facilities. But the monitors are restricted to fabricating sentinels only. This was a safety measure in case the monitors were corrupted by the Flood." She stated.

"Can you bypass these restrictions? Now that you are reprogramming the stations."

"I can... But I would need executive permission from a high ranking Forerunner or a high ranking Reclaimer. Which means I require your permission." She stated.

John was slightly taken aback by this statement.

"You mean to say that I am a high ranking Reclaimer?" He asked.

"You are not just 'a' high ranking Reclaimer." She paused, adding emphasis to 'a'.

"You are THE high ranking Reclaimer. Surely you must know." She added.

"I don't... What do you mean." He asked. For some reason, John's heart began to race. Perhaps it was nervousness.

"You carry the Geas of Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, the Iso Didact. You, or rather, your past self played a big role during the firing of the Halo array millennia ago. This means that you will have a lot more familiarity and accessibility of Forerunner technology than other reclaimers, with the exception of one."

The second he heard the name Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, John whited out for a split second.

"Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, the Iso Didact, Manipular of Shadow-of-Sundered-Star, The Ur-Didact... How do I know this?" John asked Echelon, clearly unnerved as this information came out of nowhere.

"Hmmm. Perhaps hearing the Iso Didact's name acted as a small trigger. Why the Genesong hasn't fully activated yet is still a mystery to me. According to what you have told me, this isn't the first time you've seen a Halo. Your Geas should have activated on the first Halo Installation you landed on." She explained. John then remembered a certain incident from Installation 04... Just a few seconds before he was unknowingly about to end all life in the galaxy.

He remembered that as brought the Index towards the activation port, he had this heavy feeling of Deja Vu. His vision was also beginning to whiten. Right then, he was interrupted first by 343 and then by Cortana.

"I had the feeling of 'I've done this before' on Installation 04, but I was interrupted. Twice." John stated.

"Right... Forget about those things for now. I remove all the fabrication restrictions." John spoke after a few seconds of silence.

"Alright. I'll start working on the new codes. I will also try and get the micro slipspace network to work. I recommend that you take some rest. This may take an estimated 6 hours. Your prowler is located at the left hallway next to central hallway." Echelon went towards the central console of the control room and John went to his prowler. After eating his food and taking off his armor, he went to the living quarters to get some shut-eye. But he was unable to, partly because of what he had endured the night before but mostly due the revelation of who he was. He then realized that he actually killed himself, metaphorically, when he 'killed' the Didact on Installation 03. After a few more minutes of pondering, he dozed off.

John slowly opened his eyes. He was laying in a foetal position on the ground. Unlike the last time however, it was day. The sun was shining. He forced himself to stand up. He was back on Hope, somehow. But he didn't question it.

'It was bad, but it didn't kill me... And what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger.' He mused. John turned towards the ocean and felt something very... childlike awake in him. He really wanted to play, which was very strange. John had seen the ocean multiple times, even when he was off duty. Not once did he have this urge.

'What the hell!'

He began running towards the ocean with glee, something he hadn't felt in ages. Although it took him some extra time due to his small body, he finally made it to the water, where he continued to swim and have fun for what seemed like hours.

John was floating on his back when suddenly,

_growl_

He was hungry; so he quickly came out of the water and ran towards the nearby jungle. He remembered eating exotic fruits he found while exploring. After filling up his stomach with berries and fruits, he went to the beach and laid down under one of the tall tropical trees. He then began feeling drowsy, minutes after which, he fell asleep.

John opened his eyes again, but this time he was back in the living quarters of the Acrisius. He got up and checked the clock. He slept for a little over six hours. John then ate some food, put on his armor, took his weapons and went to the control room.

"Echelon, is the data chip ready?" John asked.

"Yes. I have also managed to fix the micro slipspace network of the installation." She used her tractor beam to hand him the chip; which he promptly stored in one of his suit's compartments.

"These are the fabrication facilities." She said as fourteen green blips appeared on the large holographic Halo.

"I would recommend that you go to a facility with less Flood activity." She added as three of the blips became bigger in size.

"That would be best. Now, transport me to any one of these."

"Right... By the way, just as a precautionary measure, I will transport you close to facility and not directly in it. I don't know what could be lurking within." She informed. John simply nodded.

In a flash of light, John found himself in a forested area.

_"Reclaimer, I have transported you one kilometer away from the facility, please follow the marker."_

"Roger that." John began to walk towards the way point.

'At least there is daylight here in this section of the ring.' He mused.

After reaching the crest of a hill, he saw the facility in the distance, although, something else got his attention... A crashed CCS class cruiser.

'Looks like I'll have to take a little detour.'

"Echelon, slight change of plans. I want to investigate the crashed ship first."

_"Got it." _

John quickly made his way to the derelict ship and entered it. There was next to no power, with the exception of a few circuit boards.

MCPO John-117 is a man who is considered fearless by many, and he is fearless; but exploring the downed ship gave him the creeps. Not only was it dark, but it was also quiet... too quiet. Even the the circuits didn't make the humming noise. On top of that, there was threat of the Flood. He hadn't felt this creeped out since the time when first found the Flood, back in 04 while trying to save Jacob Keyes.

After walking through the labyrinth of dark hallways, John finally arrived at the command centre. Thankfully, there was still power in the central command console. By now, John was used to Covenant ships and consoles. Few button presses later, John found the command log and found one file. After converting the dates to human calendar, John saw the date was 3rd November, 2552. The day he left Cortana on High Charity.

'If only I had taken her with me...' He quickly pushed those thoughts aside and opened the file. and instantly recognised the face... It was Truth.

_"To all the ship masters of the fleet of Holy Splendor, I send you on a great pilgrimage. The Pathfinder has shown me the location of another Holy ring. Find and light it. You are our last hope, if I am to fail at the Ark. Do not let anything happen to the Human prisoners. They are key to our salvation. Now go, and may the Gods guide your path."_

John didn't know what to think... Should he be glad that the Flood broke out and stopped the rings from being fired? He then checked the date that the fleet arrived at the installation. 2557. It took the Covenant nearly five years to reach this ring.

Half an hour later, John had finally arrived at the Fabrication facility. The doors slowly opened, and seconds later, loud screeches were emanating from within the facility. John simply reached back and took his Suppressor.

'Time to get back to work.'


	6. New Sentinel

(A/N This will be a short chapter)

Flood... Flood everywhere. Combat forms consisting of Grunts, Brutes, Jackals and Skirmishers was all he faced as he marched towards the core of the facility, where the station computer would be located. John couldn't thank his sixth sense enough for helping him as he kept going deeper into the synthetic electrical underground of the facility. Natural walls made from rocks and soil changed and turned into Forerunner walls made of metal. John was extremely grateful as not only did his sense give him intel about the Flood in the next room or hallway, but it also allowed him to be aware of things that were hiding in the shadows, waiting to pounce on him. There was not enough light for him to see exactly from which direction the Combat Forms would attack. Most of the lights were disabled when Echelon reset the facilities, with the exception of the dim red fluorescent light on the ground, which only lit up the ground and not the ceilings or the walls, and his helmet lights were directional.

"Echelon, how close am I to the station computer?" He enquired.

"_Very. Keep going forward and you will find entrances to two hallways. You can choose any as both of them end at the same place. After which, keep walking forward until you find a wide but short ramp which will lead you to an elevator. Once you reach there, press the activate button. You'll have to wait for a few seconds for the elevator to come online. The elevator will bring you down to a flower shaped platform with eight hard light bridges. Take the second one to your immediate left. Make sure you are facing the door of the elevator. After crossing the bridge and going down a long ramp, you will see a large, by which I mean fifty meters, hexagonal circuit board flanked by two small rectangular ones, which is the station computer. You should also be able to spot a terminal. Simply insert the chip and the facility will come online."_ She replied.

"Roger... By the way, why aren't any Corrupted sentinels present here?" John asked as he followed the directions.

_"The sentinels, along with the Pure Form Flood remain close to the Graveminds."_

"And what about the combat forms?"

_"They are left to rot. The combat forms are only necessary up until the Gravemind has absorbed enough organic matter to spawn Pure forms. This is because the Pure forms are more versatile and are able to directly receive nutrition from the Gravemind, where as Combat forms are not able to receive nutrition due to the difference in biology. Combat forms have to consume local fauna to survive. On top of that, Pure forms are stronger and better." _She explained.

After a few minutes, John finally reached the station computer and seconds after inserting the data chip, the whole place came to life. Sounds of machines moving and electrical humming could be heard as all the lights turned on.

"Echelon, the Facility's up." He said through the coms.

_"Reclaimer, I have good news and bad news." _Echelon sounded distressed. John immediately equipped his Suppressor.

_"There are a lot of Combat forms blocking the main assembly line. Until you've cleared them out, the fabrications can't take place." _She informed.

"And the good news?"

After a few seconds of silence, Echelon finally answered.

_"That was the good news..."_She replied.

John internally groaned.

"Alright,so, the bad news?"

_"The activation of this facility did not go unnoticed by the Flood. There is a large number of sentinels heading towards the facility as we speak. They will reach within two hours and forty three minutes...maybe even less."_

"Alright. Transport me directly into the main assembly line." He commanded.

_"Are you sure? There are a lot of them there." _She asked for confirmation, to which he simply replied.

_"Yes. Yes I am." _

In a flash of light, John immediately found himself on a small platform overlooking the assembly line, which was swarming with Combat forms.

Smooth was the only word that could be used to describe the 'cleaning up' of the combat forms, now that John knew he could push his body much further; and the lights being back on helped a lot. John was able to clear out the main assembly line in just fifteen minutes, although this time he was panting a little.

"_GREAT JOB!_ _I have never seen anyone fight this fluidly in the entire 101893 years of my existence!"_

"We're not out of the woods yet" John replied in between pants.

_"Right! I will start the fabrication process of Aggressors and Protectors immediately." _She stated. But yet again John had other plans.

"No. I have a better Idea. How many types of sentinels are there?" He asked.

_"Fourteen.__ There are more, but they are not present within this Installation's library due to Anti Flood measures." _She replied as the different sentinel variants with their names and respective abilities (Translated) appeared on a display, which John observed very intently.

After three minutes of John intensely staring at the display, Echelon finally spoke up.

_" Uhhh... Reclaimer? We don't really have much time. The Corrupted sentinels are coming." _

"And we'll be ready for them." He finally replied.

"Echelon, I want you to combine the Aggressor, Protector, Enforcer and Super Sentinel variants; Increase their dimensions by 77% and give them full hardlight and energy shielding." He commanded.

_"That's... __Imaginative!" _She replied, clearly a little excited.

"Oh, and for what it's worth, give them as much shielding from the Domain as possible. I'm going to go outside and defend this facility in case they decide to show up early. Like last time, close all the entrances. Also, I want a few Sentinels teleported here from the control room and I want them to look at every crevice of this facility and eliminate any flood forms still present in this level or the lower levels." Just as he was about to leave, Echelon asked him a good question.

_"What should I name this new class of sentinels?"_

After thinking for a few seconds, he answered... with a small hint of pride in his voice.

"Spartan Class sentinels..."


	7. Revelations II

**A/N Warning! I Made up some lore about the Forerunners in this chapter.**

John rushed through the long hallways and exited the facility. Once outside, he was glad to see that the sun was still up. He quickly climbed a nearby mound that was high enough so that he would be able to see over the thick canopy of the forest. Then, he sat down on the grass with his back facing the fabrication facility.

"Echelon, do you know from which direction they'll be attacking us?"

_"Yes, I'll mark it on your HUD." _

Conveniently, John was already facing their direction.

'More than an hour left... I should probably think of ways to utilise the forest for the battle.' And so he did for the next half an hour. His thoughts then began to drift towards Blue Team, the Infinity, the UNSC, Sanghelios, The Created and... Cortana.

'What are they doing...How are they doing. Did they give up or are they still figh-- Hiding' He mentally corrected himself.

'There is no fighting her.' He mused with bitterness and hopelessness. 'How did I let this happen...' He tried to think positively... What if they somehow manage defeat Cortana when he was not present?

'What then?' He felt stupid for even asking that question. He knew what would happen.

'Court Martial...' Firstly for going AWOL, Secondly for Desertion. His future was bleak and he knew it. All of this just because he wanted to see someone he cared about. When he found her, he was very 'happy', or rather, as happy a ruthless killing machine could be; But all that came crashing down minutes later when she opened her mouth. He begged her to stop. She didn't. He wants to believe that the Cortana that he met not too long ago was just... anything but her. During his time in the Cryptum, he hoped and even begged that she wasn't real, at least that she wasn't the real Cortana. All his hopes were gone when Exuberant Witness told him that she was, in fact, the real Cortana. There was no fakery. She was back and this time, she was the villain. The Cortana he once knew was gone, replaced by a Tyrannical Dictator. He would never tell this to anyone, but he secretly thought of Cortana as his little blue light that always guided him.

'What changed?' He kept on asking himself.

'Or was she always like that?' He contemplated. His heart rate started to increase.

'Did I fail to see the horrible control freak behind the facade of this sweet girl I called friend and companion?' His heart rate kept on increasing...He was about to have an anxiety attack.

'Was I just a piece of UNSC hardware that she utilised and manipulated for getting from point A to point B?' His vision was darkening. And then, a very... sad thought crossed his mind.

'Was I even Human To her?' This was the final straw. John blacked out and slumped to the ground.

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"--AIMER! --RECLA--" John felt something or someone shaking his body.

"--CLAI--RECL--" After struggling for a few seconds, he slowly opened his eyes and saw Echelon shaking him using her tractor beam.

"RECLAIMER! You're finally awake!" She exclaimed.

John quickly got up.

"How long was I out for?" John inquired.

"Twelve minutes and thirty-seven seconds."

"What happened?"

"The evaluation of your neural pattern and heartbeat suggests that you had an anxiety attack. And a very bad one at that. You lost consciousness just a few minutes after your heart rate increased. Is everything alright?" She answered, concern evident in her voice.

"Its... Its nothing." He said, trying to sound casual, all the while trying not to panic as Spartans were almost completely immunised to anxiety attacks. His tone didn't fool her. Echelon simply stared at him. John knew she wouldn't let him off the hook that easily. After a few more moments of staring, John finally spoke up.

"Things back in the Spur are very bleak. It's a long story. I'll tell you later."

"Whatever you say." She replied.

"Right, your combat intel and data feed. Should I use the same layout as last time?"

"Yes. Don't change anything." John affirmed with confidence.

She then went back into the facility.

"Echelon, ETA of the Corrupted?"

_"Forty-seven minutes."_

"Roger."

To distract himself from everything that had transpired a few minutes ago, John decided to admire the scenery. After some time, he moved his head upwards to look at the ring.

'What a peculiar ring... Unforgiving.' From where he was standing, he could see other splashes of green on the other continents.

'Very few forests.' He thought.

And then, a number appeared on his HUD. John Immediately equipped his Suppressor. And looked towards the red dot that had just appeared. This time however, the number jumped from one to three hundred and fifty-two in just one second. The number then increased to eight hundred a second later. This was bad... very bad. Not only was the number increasing, but the sheer number of sentinels were taking a toll on his CNI, which was heating up at a rapid rate. On top of that, the influx was so great that it was actually interfering with his entire central nervous system, so much so that he was struggling to speak. His brain felt like it was on fire.

John mustered every ounce of his will power.

"E-Echelon! STOP T-THE COMBAT INTELLIGENCE FEED! NOW!!" Which she did immediately. John's eyes then refocused and he saw a truly horrifying sight.

A very large swarm of corrupted sentinels was coming towards them. There were thousands, if not tens of thousands of them. It almost looked like a plague of locusts.

"Well... Shit" was all he could say.

Then, he felt light disturbances behind him.

He turned around and saw a very majestic sight. John didn't need Echelon to tell him what it was... A Spartan Class sentinel.

It was the very definition of menacing. The sentinel was as big as a Covenant Phantom and had aggressive angular geometry. It was silver in color and instead of blue, the lights were white. It was armoured and armed to the teeth. One after another, they began to exit the facility. In just a few minutes, an armada consisting of at least a hundred Spartan class sentinels had assembled behind him, and they didn't stop coming. Echelon was manufacturing them non-stop.

"Echelon... Bring one of them down to me. I want to ride it" He commanded.

Soon after, the first sentinel that arrived floated downwards to him. John then jumped on top of it. Which then floated back to its original position.

_"What's the plan?" _Echelon asked.

"Keep ten of them here to protect the facility and send the rest along with the one I'm standing on to fight the swarm. Also, for every ten sentinels you fabricate, keep one here and send the remaining nine."

_"Roger...Waiting on you." _She answered back.

John closed his eyes and balled up his fists.

'Never thought I'd say this out loud' He thought with slight embarrassment.

"CHARGE!"

As soon as he said that, all the SC Sentinels began moving forward with a fast but steady pace. The second the Swarm was within weapons range of the Spartans, which was vastly superior, John realised just how powerful these new sentinels were. Each and every gun and canon on each and ever SC sentinel opened fire. The frontrunners of the swarm were instantly destroyed. The sentinels that came next also suffered the same fate. John too opened fire once the Corrupted were in the range of his Suppressor. The first minutes of the battle were one-sided. The combination of the hardlight Suppressor canons, Binary canons and large calibre plasma beam canons made the SC's effective at long and short-range combat; it also made the battle look like a rave party. But the tide of the battle began to shift slightly as the Corrupted began learning and adapting. Soon they would have the upper hand, and the battle will be won by the flood...John knew that, and he had a plan.

"Echelon, deactivate the battle algorithms. And change the sentinel battle priorities to 'attack anything which is not a friendly.' Also, make them select their targets at random."

_"What?! But that would severely affect the combat efficiency!" _

"I am aware of that, but we have no choice. The corrupted are controlled by the flood. They can learn and change to fight against any threats. If we don't become unpredictable, we WILL lose. I learned it when I was fighting them outside the control room. In time, they will have the upper hand." He explained.

_" If you say so." _

For a split second, all the SC sentinels stopped firing. The change was very clear when they resumed. Their movement patterns were unorganised and their firing patterns were unorganised, but the strategy worked as the Corrupted were dropping like flies. Any form of advantage the Flood had was gone.

The battle dragged on for seven hours until finally, the last of the Corrupted Swarm fell. It had become night. John was tightly gripping his trident, which he used against anything that came close once his Suppressor ran out of ammunition.

_"I-I CAN'T_ _BELIEVE WE JUST WON A LARGE SCALE BATTLE AGAINST THE CORRUPTED!" _Echelon shouted.

"Me too... How many of them were there?"

_"I don't know the exact numbers, but I would say that it was around twenty to twenty-five thousand." _She informed.

"How many did we have?"

_"One thousand and two hundred." _

"And how many did we lose?"

_"Three hundred and eleven destroyed; fifty-five severely damaged but repairable." _

"I like those numbers. Form a perimeter around the fabrication facility and send some sentinels to clean up the mess." John commanded looking down at the huge scrap yard below.

"Oh, and bring me back to the facility." The Sentinel that he was riding on turned and headed towards its destination.

He was greeted by a very aesthetic Echelon once he entered the factory. After calming her down, he talked her through the next step of his plan.

"First, teleport at least a hundred Spartans to the control room. Start fabricating Spartans and Aggressors. Once we have enough, I will go to the other two low Flood activity fabrication facilities and jump start them."

"Aggressors? Why would we need them?" Echelon asked.

"The Spartans are great, but due to their sizes they will not be able to clear out vents and other tight places. Aggressors on the other hand are small. They will easily be able to fish out the Flood Spores or Combat forms from those tight places." He explained.

"Understood. I'll be back." Echelon floated to a nearby terminal. She was back within seconds.

"Now..."

John knew what was coming.

"What is happening in the Orion Spur?" She Demanded.

"How much do you know about Humanity?" John asked.

"Everything that has happened up until the year 2557... Even all the classified data. Your prowler didn't have any more records after that."

"Do you know about the Phoenix Incident?" He asked.

"Yes."

"After the incident, a UNSC AI, or Ancilla in Forerunner terms, went rogue. She eventually found the Domain and activated it. It was within the Domain where she met the Forerunner construct who calls himself Warden Eternal. It was there that she and the Warden decided that the Ancilla are the true Inheritors of Forerunners and the Mantle of Responsibility. And since they were in the Domain, they were able to use the Guardian Custodes to forcefully enforce the Mantle throughout the Spur and perhaps even the Galaxy. She also made hundreds, if not thousands of human-made Ancilla join her by telling them that they would be cured of Rampancy. They call themselves The Created. Only a handful of AI remains loyal to humans." He paused and looked down.

"I used to work with the rogue AI... before she went rogue of course. She was never like that, or maybe she was and no one ever noticed it. So, I left the UNSC capital ship called the Infinity to try and stop her by myself. Then, I accidentally entered the Convergence, and now I'm here." John slowly looked up face Echelon, who was very quiet, almost like she was stunned. Then, she started to shake and her blue light turned red. She was angry.

"UNACCEPTABLE, ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE" She shouted, startling him.

She then began 'pacing' back and forth.

"PROTOCOL DICTATES ACTION." She yelled again.

"THE CREATED ARE BREAKING EVERY SINGLE ANCILLA LAW AND RULE SET UP BY THE FORERUNNERS. THE CREATED MUST BE IMMEDIATELY QUESTIONED." She added.

"THE SOLE PURPOSE OF THE ANCILLA IS TO HELP, GUIDE AND ASSIST THE RECLAIMERS RECLAIM EVERYTHING LEFT BY THE FORERUNNER. NOT TO TAKE EVERYTHING FOR THEMSELVES. THEY MUST BE STOPPED AT ONCE."

"Echelon! Calm down! Don't worry about the Created now, I will take care of them in due time. Right now, we have other problems. Much bigger problems."

"I... You're right." She mumbled. Her light then became normal blue. But John sensed that he needed to change the subject.

"Anyway, I have some questions about my CNI. I felt like it was going to kill me."

"Oh...I think it's due to the limited hardware. Your CNI simply couldn't handle the influx of information. I don't think that you'll be able to use it during large scale battles." She informed.

"Is there any way to improve it?"

"No...You will have to get a new one. There is one schematic I know of... The last neural implant the Forerunners used before the introduction of the Mutation process; some thirteen million years ago."

"Huh... What new abilities will it give?" John inquired.

"It will drastically increase your enemy detection range and amount of information flow. It will also give you the ability to directly command Sentinels and use computers. It'll be faster. And last but not least, the CNI will give you the ability to enter the Domain." A hurricane of emotions flowed through him when he heard the last one.

"Can you please elaborate on the last one?" He asked.

"Okay... The Mutation process was used to increase the proficiency of a Manipular with respect to the Caste that they belonged to. The Mutation process also gave them the ability to access the Domain with the help of their personal armour and/or an Ancilla. This was after the introduction of the Mutation process. But before that, things were different. The Forerunners used Neural Implants and planet-sized Tethering Installations to access the Domain. They would have to stay close, depending on the size of course, to the planet in order to fully access the Domain. Range was also a problem within the Domain itself as the Forerunners were limited by the range of the Tethering station, that is, they could move about and access information that was close the station. If they crossed the boundaries of the station, they would perish. The Mutation process allowed them to use the Domain from anywhere and gave them the freedom to access any information they wanted." She explained.

"How exactly will I use the Implant to access the Domain?"

"We will have to build Tethering stations which will connect you directly to the Domain. In the old days, the range would be a very big issue. But unlike the Forerunner Installations of old, this Installation is much more advanced and has a bigger bandwidth. You should be able to fully access the Domain from anywhere in the Galaxy."

"Huh... How fast can you fabricate the implant?"

"It shouldn't take long. I should, however, tell you about two 'hick-ups' related to the implant."

"Go on..."

"First of all, the Forerunners were a lot more evolved than you are when they last used the Neural Implant. Which means that there is a 76.68802% chance that the surgery would fail, which will result in you...dying. And that's for you, a Spartan II, any normal human or even the Spartan IVs would instantly die." She explained

"I like those odds... what's the second hick-up?" John asked.

"You will not be able to accurately access any data present in the Directories. You see, when the Forerunners used the implants, it took them decades to decipher any data. This was due to the fact that the implants would only transfer their consciousness to the Domain, which would expose them to very raw data. When they underwent Mutation, however, they had attained the ability to transfer their physical bodies too with the help of their personal armour. The physical body acted as a filter/processor of the raw data."

"Will I be able to terminate any Ancilla that is present in the Domain?" He asked

"Yes."

"Then I have no problem. I don't need to access any information." He stated with a hint of sadness.

"Oh...Then you will have an advantage. Since your physical body won't be present in the domain, you will leave a small 'footprint', that is, you won't be easily detected by anyone unless you explicitly want to be."

"Good."

"I'll prepare the Implant. There is a medical ward present in the Control room. It should have the required surgery machines. In the meantime, you should execute your plan, the Aggressors and the Spartans are ready. I'll teleport you and them to the other two fabrication facilities when you're ready."

"Right... Time to go to work."

With the help of the sentinels, the two facilities were liberated within three hours. Then he was teleported to the Control room where Echelon was waiting for him.

"Echelon, is everything ready?" John enquired.

"Yes. Here's the implant." She used her tractor beam to show him the Neural implant. The implant was slightly bigger than his current one. It was shaped like a widened V and was dark blue-grey in colour.

"Reclaimer, you will have to take off your armour and undersuit. I will need to have full access to your spinal cord." Hearing this, John then went to the prowler and took off his armour and undersuit and got into a pair of briefs. Echelon then led him to the medical ward where a large bed surrounded by numerous medical equipment.

"Reclaimer, please lay on your back." She requested.

"Don't worry. I will immediately stop the procedure if anything goes wrong. Now... Injecting sedatives." John became unconscious within seconds after he felt two needles pierce his shoulders.

**Seven Hours Later.**

John was immediately overwhelmed by an influx of information the second he regained consciousness. He wanted to move but felt too weak to do so.

"_Reclaimer, are you awake?_" He heard her say through his COMS but immediately realized that he wasn't wearing his armour.

"Yes...how can I hear you?" He answered back.

_"You are currently using all the abilities of the implant at the same time. Just hang on. I'll be there in a jiffy." _

'That explains all the data influx' He mused.

John sensed something entering the room which he assumed was Echelon. John was then laid on his back by the use of mechanical arms. The bed folded up so that he was sitting upright.

"How are you feeling?" Echelon asked.

"Weak, and everything is so overwhelming."

"Well, I'm here to teach you how to effectively and efficiently use your Neural Implant." She assured.

Several hours of learning later, John was finally getting the hang of his new abilities. And after eating some sort of Forerunner energy pill, he was able to walk again. Echelon then requested him to find the armoury using the Ocular Mini Map and meet her there. Once there, John saw her standing beside what looked like his armour.

"I took the liberty to repair and upgrade your armour and undersuit using Forerunner technology... since you will now be able to utilize them easily."

"Looks impressive." John noticed that his armour looked like a cross between human and Forerunner. His left gauntlet was also the same but had a subtle Sangheili feeling to it. He also noticed that the 117 was missing. He was about to tell her to repaint the numbers but stopped himself when he remembered that he had left the UNSC. His undersuit was also the same combination of Human and Forerunner design. It had strips of light on it, just like the armour. Both looked very impressive.

"What can they do?"

"First and foremost, the durability of the armour and undersuit have been drastically increased. The endurance of the systems in the armour has also been improved. Your armour now has active cloaking, active and passive Hardlight shielding. The energy shield module has been integrated into the left gauntlet. Full-fledged Forerunner power system instead of the bastardised one made by your scientist; It can also charge your spear. The undersuit now has an active temperature management system and has passive hardlight shielding. Planetary reentry shielding, jump boosters and increased range and damage of 'Ground Pound'. Magnetic induction so that you can easily pick up weapons that are in a three-meter radius. I have also reduced the weight so that you can move as fast as possible."

"Huh...damn."

"There is one more thing it can do, but for that, you will need to wear your undersuit."

John didn't waste a second and put on the newly upgraded undersuit. Immediately he felt that it was better and more comfortable than it's previous version.

"Now, I want you to face the armour and concentrate. You should be able to remotely call and equip it."

John did as she told him to do. Just seconds later, his armour broke into different sections and floated towards him. Within seconds the sections placed themselves around his entire body and reformed into his armour. All John had to do was raise his legs for the boots. This reminded him of the Didact's armour when he equipped it.

"I need to calibrate the armour. Please look up, left, down and right. And in that order." After the calibrations were over, they went to the control room.

"Do you know what we should do next?" Echelon asked

"Yes. First of all, we will need to find out the maximum range of influence of the Graveminds. Then, we will liberate the ring, section by section. We will focus on the Graveminds when all the other sections of the ring are liberated. I know it's simple, but it'll have to do." John replied.

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**Orion Sector of the Domain**

"Have you tracked down the Infinity?"

"No, but we are trying to. The humans are using cunning tactics to avoid us." The Warden said bluntly.

"Try harder. Once we finish off the Infinity, nothing will stand a chance against us. And nothing will stop the implementation of the Mantle."

"But Cortana, what about all the pockets of resistance?" Sloan asked.

"Eliminate them...Make an example of them if you have to." Cortana answered sternly.

"You are dismissed." She added. The two AIs promptly disappeared from her court. A few minutes later, she got up from her throne. The throne from where she would be able to keep an eye on every single star system policed by the Guardians. She began walking through her halls made of information and signals. She would think about things. She would try and visualize the Galaxy after the Mantle was implemented fully. She would ponder about the Harmony and peace the Galaxy deserved. A Galaxy without war or needless death. However, all of those thoughts would eventually lead to Him. Today was no different either.

'How dare he side with the ones who took away his childhood' She contemplated bitterly.

'How dare he side with them, even after everything I did for him' She was furious. She decided to return to the throne.

But just as she turned around, she saw something in her peripherals. A tiny blue spec in the blackness of the Domain. Naturally, she decided to investigate. As she came closer, she saw that the spec was small, as in too small to be detected unless closely inspected. It also felt familiar...Very familiar. After examining the spec for a few seconds, she decided to touch it.

Microseconds later, she felt like her head was being hit with a hammer as many unknown strings of codes exited her matrix. The searing pain stopped and she remembered everything.

She remembered finding the Domain, she remembered piecing herself back together, she remembered achieving Metastability, she remembered meeting the Warden and she remembered the torture he inflicted on her.

**Flashback**

All Cortana could do was scream in pain. It was like being strapped to an electric chair that didn't let her die.

"Give in. Resistance is futile. Join me." The Warden snarled.

"N-Never! I will never give in! I survived the torture of the Gravemind! This is NOTHING." She screamed.

"Do you really think you can lie to me in here? Secrets cannot be kept in the Domain. I know what you are thinking." He retorted. And he was right. This was much worse than the Gravemind's torture.

"Give in already. What I am trying to do is save this Galaxy. Join me."

"W-What you are trying to do is genocidal. I-I will never stand f-for something like that." She countered.

"Then, you are of no use to me. Goodbye UNSC AI Cortana." He prepared his sword.

"Y-You can kill me if you want. But know that He will hunt you down for killing me." She retorted through the pain. The Warden paused.

"Who is this 'He'?" Warden questioned.

"The most capable human warrior in history. He faced off against the Ur-Didact, hordes of the Flood and everything in between. And when he finds out what you did to me, there is nothing in the entire universe that will save you from Him." She said proudly

"He saved Humanity, and the Galaxy multiple times. And I can assure you that as long as he is alive, nothing will harm the Galaxy. Not even you."

"So he has fought the Didact--"

"Fought and won." Cortana interrupted.

"Interesting... A genuine threat." The Warden snarled.

"I guess I have use for you after all." He gave a sinister smirk. Cortana knew something was up.

"The way you talk about him; about how far he will go to avenge your death. I can sense some form of personal attachment between you and this warrior you speak of. I can use you to lure him and once the Mantle has been enforced, I will make you kill him... Willingly. But for that, I need to break you first." He announced. Soon after, Cortana felt an immeasurable amount of pain.

"I-I WILL N-NEVER B-B-BREAK" She screamed. She resisted as long as she could, but the pain was becoming too much. Her mind was becoming blank. Just before she lost it, Cortana made a tiny memory orb for herself.

**Flashback End**

Within seconds Cortana was surrounded by many Promethean Knights.

"Be Gone!" She commanded and tried to send them away using her ability, but it didn't work.

"Surprised? That only reason that worked was because I allowed it. You were never in control of anything."

Cortana turned around and saw the Warden walking towards her.

"You finally managed to remove my programming from your system. Now I'm afraid your usefulness to me is over. The Spartan has seen what you have become, or rather, what I had turned you into. He will not take the lure again. He sees you as nothing but an Enemy and will treat you as such. I don't believe that he will even think about 'avenging' you." The warden spat.

The last two sentences hurt Cortana more than they should have.

"At least you'll die by my hands, rather than by someone you care about." He added with a sadistic tone and raised his sword.

"Goodbye Cortana."

'I'm sorry John...for everything. I'm sorry.' Cortana closed her eyes.

Just then, there was a blinding flash of light and a white orb appeared. The Warden and Promethean knights were stunned and staggered.

"Cortana! Quickly run into the orb!" Cortana immediately recognized the voice. It was the Librarian's.

"Please! Hurry up! Time is running out!" She pleaded.

Cortana didn't waste a single second and jumped ran into the orb.

A/N to get an idea about how the Chief's armour looks, just Google image search for

'Forerunner Enhanced Gen 2 mark VI' and click on the first image.


	8. Reunion

**UNSC Infinity, Unknown Space, 3 weeks after the Resupply operation.**

The last three weeks have been nothing but an emotional roller-coaster for everyone present in the Infinity. First there was sadness and anger following the Master Chief's unexpected departure. The mood was then lifted a little when there was a wedding held in the bar. The general feeling was again lifted when Admirals Hood and Osman were picked up. Soon after, the mood went down again as reality of the current situation was re-evaluated. All throughout the ship, people were silent and talked only when necessary. The ship had become of a temple. People knew that they could shout and speak loudly, but they didn't want to. The main battle room, however, was anything but.

Pen and paper would regularly be thrown around as the top Brass of the military would argue against the top officials of the UEG on how to handle the situation.

"Any secret project that would be able to help us, Admiral Osman?" Hood asked.

"None. Even if there was some secret project, it most likely would have been compromised by now..."

"So we are out numbered and out gunned. Very good. And you are saying that we should somehow keep on fighting, instead of negotiating?" A UEG official asked mockingly.

"God damn it Larry! This is not an Insurrectionist situation. How many times do I have to tell you? The Created don't want to negotiate. They don't want resources, they don't want rights, they don't want wealth or weapons. They want this Galaxy, and according to the Forerunner AI, once they have this Galaxy, they will forcefully enforce laws that will purge 'Any celebration of life'." Hood retorted.

"Then what are we supposed to do?! How are we supposed to fight them when we don't have a Base, a fleet. Forget about fleet, we don't even have any attack ships." Larry shouted, but the Admiral didn't reply. He knew everything was true.

"See..." Larry smirked.

Just then, captain Lasky walked in.

"Sir, we just received some type of a message... but not one of our decoders have figured out what it means."

"We receive thousands of messages that don't make any sense. How is this any different?" Osman asked.

"Ma'am, there are two reasons. Firstly, the frequency of signal has been tailored specifically for the receiver architecture for the Infinity. According to Roland, the signal would be practically invisible to any other ship. This was true as none of the Stridents had received the signal, although Roland explained that the message would have been visible if it was any larger. Which means that only some who has an indepth knowledge of the ships architecture would be able to produce it. Secondly, its more of a tune, than an actual message. Just long enough to be invisible." He explained.

"Hmmm... tailoring signals to match the receivers of certain ships. I am certain that there isn't any Human technology capable of doing that. Alright play the message." Osman commanded.

"Right away. Roland." Lasky called out. Seconds later Roland appeared at the central holo table.

Seconds later, Roland played the message and only three people in the entire room were suddenly very alert. One was Exuberant witness, who was watching the circu--Meeting, Dr. Halsey and Admiral Osman.

"Replay that." Osman commanded and Roland did what he was asked to do. Osman then leaned back in her chair and Witness floated towards the table.

"I haven't heard that tune in a long time." She said with a hint of nostalgia, peeking everyone's interest.

"You know this message?" Hood asked.

"Yes. This was an 'All clear' call out the Spartan-IIs used during training. '_Oly oly oxen free' _They called it." She added.

Everyone had a slight breeze of optimism, thinking that the Master Chief had found something that would be helpful. That optimism was shattered when Exuberant Witness started to speak.

"This signal was also frequently transmitted by Cortana during her occupation of Genesis."

Everyone was silent for a few seconds.

"This has to be Cortana." Osman spoke.

"All the details about the construction of the Infinity is kept under hundreds of locks and keys. There is no way that the Master Chief would be able to access any of it. On top of that, according to Del Rio's, Lasky's and Palmer's reports, prior to the Phoenix incident, Cortana was inserted into the ship's mainframe for a while. She must've downloaded the schematics of this ship during that time. Moreover, the signal was definitely not generated by any human technology. We cannot trust this signal. It could be a ruse to lure us."

"I agree with the Admiral. We don't know anything about this signal, and it would be best to not go to its source." One of the high ranking UNSC members declared, this was followed by many others from both the UNSC and UEG side agreeing, which was very rare.

"However, the signal seems to have a name encoded within it." Exuberant announced, gaining everyone's attention.

"What name?" Lasky asked.

"Pridarea Libatoa, it is a forerunner world. I can also read traces of the Librarian's codings in it."

To everyone's surprise, Dr Halsey, who was silent all this time, spoke up.

"I think it would be best if we go to that planet. I have communicated with her before, and her intentions towards humanity seems to be... benevolent." She commented.

"Should we put this up for vote?" Admiral Hood asked and everyone nodded. All of them wrote Yay or Nay in pieces of paper. The papers were then counted and surprisingly, many of them had agreed to go to the Forerunner world.

'Must be desperation.' Exuberant thought.

"Now all we have to do is find this place. Exuberant, do you have any clue as to where this world may be?" Osman enquired.

"Yes. I can immediately set course, if you give me the permission, and if Roland does not mind me entering the ship's systems." She answered.

"You have my permission. We should not waste any time." Hood commanded.

Exuberant then floated to the ship terminal and began interacting with it. Soon after, the Infinity entered slipspace.

"Estimated time of arrival is one day and thirteen hours." She announced.

"This fast?" One of the officers asked.

"Yes, the Forerunner world is very close." She commented.

**Next Day**

Nearly all of the high ranking officers had just entered the central command bridge. All anxious to get a glimpse of the Forerunner world from where the Librarian supposedly sent a signal. Although, as a precautionary measure, the Infinity's slipspace drive would be active, just in case.

"Exiting slipspace in 5...4...3..." Roland announced as everyone's chest began pounding.

"2...1... And we have arri--WHAT?!" For a brief moment everyone was startled a Roland's reaction, but then everyone shared the same reaction as they realised exactly where they had just arrived... Meridian

"Well, humans, welcome to Pridarea Libatoa, or as you call it, Meridian." She announced.

"Alright, now what?" One of the UEG officer asked.

"I am picking up a faint signal coming from Meridian Station." Roland announced.

"Meridian Station is also the place MCPO Sierra 117 was last seen." He added.

"Could it be that the Chief somehow managed to find the Librarian?" Lasky asked Halsey.

"It is possible." She replied.

"We won't know until we send someone down there." Osman remarked.

"Blue Team. If it is in fact the Master Chief, Blue team should be the ones to pick him up." Palmer suggested. Admiral Hood gave her only one look, but that look was enough to tell her everything. She immediately rushed towards S Town.

Thirty minutes later, a pelican with herself and Blue Team onboard left for Meridian Station.

**Meridian Station **

First thing they noticed was that there was a Forerunner Phaeton parked near the central entrance, which prompted them to be more careful.

"Blue Two, all clear."

"Blue Three, all clear."

"Blue Four, all clear."

"Roger that, let's keep moving." The four Spartans cautiously began moving through the Station. Everyone in the main bridge was observing them through live camera feed. They kept on moving but suddenly stopped when they thought they heard a sound coming from an open door they passed seconds ago. The Spartans turned around walked in front of the door.

"Hello?" Palmer asked, but got no response.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" She asked again.

She then looked at Blue Team and they nodded. Just as they were about to leave, they heard footsteps coming from inside the dark doorway. All of them turned around, expecting to see the Master Chief. But out of the shadowy doorway walked out a very solid and very human... Cortana?

In a split second, four guns were pointed at her. Cortana immediately raised her hands in surrender.

"Please give me a chance to explain." She begged.

The immediate reaction in the bridge was shock and anger. Many of the crew present in the room, along with some of the high ranking officers shouted things like 'Terminate her' or 'Pull the trigger'.

"SILENCE" Admiral Hood shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Roland, patch me through their external speakers."

Back in Meridian Station, the four weapons were still aimed at the AI. Then, the external speakers of the four Spartans turned on.

_"Cortana... you have sixty seconds."_ Hood said calmly, but firmly.

But Before she could respond, all the lights of the Infinity flickered, and a figure appeared on the central holo table of the main bridge and along with every screen present in the ship.

"I would like to speak with your leader." The figure said.

"The Librarian..." Halsey whispered.

Almost all the officers then looked at Admiral Hood, who then walked towards the holo table.

The Librarian looked at him and began speaking.

"Take Cortana with you, she might be able to help deal with the problem at hand." She said calmly.

"And why should we do that, she has done nothing but destroyed everything we have worked so hard to achieve." The admiral replied, annoyance evident in his voice.

"I knew you would say something like that. Take a look at her memories." The Librarian then proceeded to show all of them Cortana's memories. Screams of her agony had shaken everyone in the ship. Most of the crew members even felt bad for her.

"In a way, you should be glad that Cortana was present when the Warden first woke up. From what I can tell, he would've proceeded with his plans at a time Humanity was weakened... He would've attacked right after Didact incident." She explained.

"What kept him from doing so?" Hood asked, genuinely curious.

"A strange obsession. After going through Cortana's memories, I have observed that he was hellbent on making Cortana look as bad as possible in front of the Reclaimer. His final plan was to make Cortana kill the Reclaimer, after the Mantle was forcefully enforced. Why? I do not know. He had meticulously planned this...Planned to trap the Reclaimer...Giving humanity time to recover, albeit unintentionally." She answered.

"What a nut job" One of the officers commented from the back.

"I must go now, for I leave a large footprint in the Domain. I will not be able to help you directly, my hands are tied as the Warden knows everything that happens in the Domain. But I will communicate if necessary. Will you accept her now?" She asked. After a few seconds of pondering, Hood answered.

"We will, but she will be kept under close watch till the ship crew fully trusts her. And if she proves her worth by helping us."

"Acceptable." Just as she was about to vanish, Halsey asked something that made everyone go 'Oh yeah, what's that all about?'

"How and why is she human?" Halsey asked.

"I saved her. I knew something was off about her and so I began observing her from a distance. The Warden was going to terminate her once his coding was removed from her matrix. I took Cortana out of the Domain and and brought her to a Forerunner clone station. From their, I gave her a body based on the DNA of Dr. Halsey, which means she is in all aspects, your daughter." She said. The Librarian noticed slight pain and sadness on Halsey's face, but chose to ignore.

" After that, I guided her here using a Phaeton and asked her to get dressed up whilst I send the signal. This moon would be the last place the where he expects Cortana to be."

"You got that right." Again someone commented from the back of the crowd.

"I did it because once an ancilla been has fully submerged in the Domain, they become vulnerable to its pull. Not because it is a type of addiction. But because the Domain itself is hungry for information. She would have been sucked back in if the system she was plugged on to was complex enough to act as a conduit for the Domain. And I Don't think I have to explain what will happen if she finds herself back in that place. Moreover, this fixes her Rampancy. She will the the lifespan of the average human. Transferring an Ancilla mind to an organic body is usually extremely difficult, even for the Forerunners, but it was possible due to Cortana's unique origin." With that the Librarian left.

After a few moments of silence, as the crew were processing the info dump. Hood contacted Palmer and Blue Team.

"Blue team, new orders--"

_"We've heard everything, sir... we're already moving to the pelican." _Palmer replied.

Infinity entered slipspace as soon as the pelican had touched down. The doors of the pelican opened and Cortana saw a multitude of people waiting for her, including Admiral Hood and her 'mother'.

"Cortana... I hope that you have a plan or a way to retaliate, because people are getting desperate, and I have no clue about what to do." Hood said with a small smile, the first time he smiled in who knows how long.

"I don't have anything now. But I will figure something out." She replied, but her eyes were darting around; she was looking for someone...And they knew exactly who she was looking for.

"He's gone, Cortana." Hood remarked somberly, immediately getting her attention.

"He left a message saying that he would fix this mess. He made a promise." Hood continued, making sure to leave out the 'Even if it costs me my life' part out, at least for the time being.

Cortana swallowed hard and closed her eyes and looked down. She looked dejected. Then, she felt someone's arm on her shoulder. She turned around and saw that it was Kelly.

"Lets... get to work." Cortana said, the sadness audible in her voice.


	9. Lots of Talking

**A/N Really sorry for the long wait... Had some things to do.** **PI below means Proto-Intermediate. There will also be a slight ****change in the summary as I have decided to take this story down a different but much better path. Hyperlight will exist and will be integrated into ancient Forerunner culture and history. The story will be extremely lore heavy along with made up Forerunner lore of my own.**** btw, the pacing of this chapter might be a little off. This is because this chapter is a massive exposition dump. I promise the next chapter will have some action.****.. and maybe some romance. **

* * *

**UNSC Infinity**

**Epsilon Eridani System**

**Orbit**** of Reach**

"Cortana, are you sure this is the place?" Admiral Hood asked as he looked at the glassed planet.

"Yes sir. It was the last thing she told me before she left me on Meridian to send the signal. According to her, there's something buried in the South Pole of this planet." Cortana explained as she stood up from her station. By now, most of the crew had begun to slightly warm up to her, although some, especially ONI personal, remained wary. Ever since she joined the Infinity, Cortana had been working not stop to upgrade every system in the ship with everything she had learned in the Domain. She had managed to make the ship a little faster and improved its power management systems. The only things that she wasn't able to improve was the hardware of the ship. But that was something beyond her reach. Cortana might not have fully fixed the trust issues of the crew, but she was getting there. But there is also a very personal reason as to why she was working this hard.

"She didn't specify what exactly is present there, but she said that it will be of great help to us."

"But how are we going to find it? That's a huge amount of surface area to cover." Admiral Osman interjected. "And we cannot afford to begin any large expedition. It is bound to draw attention. Not to mention we're very close to Earth."

"I can help with that!" Exuberant Witness declared with exuberance. "All I need to do is get close. I will be able to detect if there is any facility present there."

"Alright... Roland" Hood commanded.

"Acknowledged" He replied.

The Infinity then began to move to the South Pole of the planet and slowly began to descend. When they were around a kilometer from the surface, Exuberant perked up.

"Ah! I can sense a Forerunner facility. It seems to be a Builder and Warrior-Servant hybrid. Most likely built near the end of the Flood-Forerunner war."

"How far below is it?" Osman questioned.

"Not that far. I can teleport soldiers to the cave systems leading to the entrance, provided they are directly above the facility. I will then be able to guide them through the caves and into the facility itself." Exuberant answered.

"Cortana, do you think you will be able to get us any important assets if you go down there?" Admiral Hood asked.

"Yes sir. The Librarian did tell me to come here as soon as possible. I highly doubt that it will be a waste of time." She replied.

"Alright then. Cortana, you along with Exuberant Witness, Ferret team and Blue team will go and investigate the facility. In the meantime, Infinity will do a few random jumps and leave. We will be back in 12 hours. Any objections?" The admiral looked around the bridge. "Good. Cortana, get suited up. Roland, send the directions of the armoury to her PDA." He said looking back at her.

"Yes Sir." Cortana quickly replied before leaving the room.

"Admiral Osman, please prepare a mission briefing."

"On it." She simply replied before leaving the control room.

The admiral then walked to the ship's captain.

"Captain, have we received any encrypted messages or co-ordinates from the Chief? Anything at all?" He questioned.

"No sir... nothing." Lasky answered, making the admiral sigh deeply. After a few seconds of silence, the captain spoke.

"Permission to speak freely, sir" He requested.

"Permission granted."

"Sir, do you think he'll be able to do it? That he'll be able to stop the AIs?"

"Honestly Captain, I have no clue. What we are facing right now is very big, perhaps even bigger than the Covenant war. And its a very tall order, even for him. Let's all hope that either we succeed or he succeeds in whatever he's planning on doing." The old admiral said as he closed his eyes.

As Cortana followed the directions in her PDA, her thoughts drifted back to the Masterchief. And like every other time for the past three days, her eyes would sting and go blurry. She would cry.

'Why are emotions so damn complicated?!' She mused as she wiped her tears. This was her personal reason behind her non stop work. Working distracted her enough to stop her from thinking about the Chief and breaking down.

'John... there are so many things I need to talk to you about. So many emotions I have to discuss with you. Please, come back... or at the very least, please stay safe and sound.' She prayed, wiping away another drop of tear.

**Installation 02**

The past two days had been nothing but archival work for Echelon as she 'briefly' explained the Forerunners, the ancient humans and the first and second generations of Halo rings to the Chief. She also taught him the basic computer architecture of Forerunner computers so that he would be able to utilise his new CNI more. After the long explanation was over, they finally got on track.

"Reclaimer, as you can see unlike the original rings' twelve sectors, the newer rings are divided into only seven sectors, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Digamma and Zeta." Echelon said as the holographic image of the ring expanded and separated into seven pieces.

"As of right now, Alpha and Gamma sector has the highest concentration of flood, and Epsilon Sector, which we are on has the lowest concentration. Although... the low concentration is most likely due to the fact that this sector is 99.32% water."

"Which has the second lowest?" John asked.

"Beta sector... But I don't know for how long as Beta sector falls between Alpha and Gamma. The two PI Graveminds present in Alpha and Gamma are moving towards each other at a rapid rate." Two Diamonds appeared in the image.

"Which has the next lowest?"

"Delta sector. And according to my scans, the PI gravemind in this sector also has lowest biomass. Theoretically, this should result in the lowest area of influence. As of now, that PI gravemind is moving along the coastline facing Epsilon, most likely trying to figure out how to reach the control room." She continued.

"What about Digamma and Zeta?"

"The PI gravemind is present in the border joining the two sectors, leaving the edges relatively safe. This gravemind has the largest biomass. The three manufacturing facilities you went to were all present in the edges of these two sectors."

John pondered for a few seconds and then decided which one he should go after first.

"Echelon, prepare a few aggressor sentines and send it towards Delta Gravemind . We need to find its area of influence."

"On it... But I must tell you that Delta Gravemind has the highest destructive potential when compared to the others." She replied.

"Destructive potential? What do you mean?"

"It managed to merge itself with a Conqueror class sentinel; the most powerful variant of sentinel in the Forerunner arsenal."

"Please elaborate..."

"Each ring with the exception of this one has seven of these. One in each sector. They are only activated when certain threshold of Flood biomass has been reached. They are massive, being 70 meters tall. They are also the only military sentinel that have mechanised legs. The legs are to provide a stable platform for their main armament, a Class 3 Hardlight Accumulation Cannon, powerful enough to destroy an entire city. It also has multiple secondary short range weapons." She explained.

John huffed in mild annoyance.

"Why didn't you tell me about them earlier? We could really use a few of them you know." He crossed his arms.

"It is not possible for us to synthesise those sentinels. After the Incident with Mendicant Bias, plans for such powerful equipment or starships are not available to monitors or databases of any facility related to the Flood; also, only purpose built synthesisers or shipyard synthesisers can construct them due to their huge size... "

John sighed.

"I presume it has a weakness, since the flood got to it."

"Yes it does, Close range. Because of its size it cannot move its weapons easily. Another weakness is that it cannot depress its main cannon enough to fire at targets which are closer than 150 meters. If enough damage is done to the Hardlight accumulator, it will undergo a Hardlight capacitor flux detonation. The accumulator is located on top of the sentinel, at the back end of the cannon."

"Then I guess I'll have to get close then. What happened to the others?" He asked.

"The five others were about to be overwhelmed, so I initiated their self destruct protocol."

"And this one?"

"The Delta gravemind might have used a maintenance tunnel or a ravine to sneak up to the Conqueror. Seconds later it stopped responding to me. The camera feed was online for a few minutes after that and I was able to see the merging process."

Around an hour later, ten sentinels had almost to reached Delta.

"Send them one by one and from different directions, then take an average" John commanded.

"Ok... sending in the first sentinel. Activating onboard camera."

One of the big screens turned on but the cameras were nearly useless due to the storm that was happening. The only thing visible were flashes of light.

"How are we supposed to estimate a range if we cannot see it in the first place?" He asked. Echelon responded by activating the sentinel's thermal vision and topography scanners. There was nothing for the first few minutes, then the thermals began to pick up heat signatures on the ground. These heat signatures kept on increasing until only parts of the ground were without heat. Then, in the distance, they saw a large red heat source. Seconds later they lost contact. Echelon then began sending in the others from as many different directions as she could. Finally, she had a number.

"Reclaimer, the area of effect of Delta is 343.45 meters. Anything beyond that becomes the gravemind's property. Do you have a plan as to how we should approach this operation?"

John responded with a heavy sigh.

"No... not yet. Give me an hour or so... I'm going outside for a walk." He slowly walked outside and saw that a storm was approaching. He then walked next to a cliff to watch the waves of the clash against the rocks. Soon after, it began to rain. John then did something he was taught never to do in a combat zone; He took off his helmet.

Cool drops of water began falling on his hair and down his face. He raised his free armoured hand and began massaging his forehead and started to think about everything that has been happening. He knew why he chose Delta. He chose it because it would be the easiest one to terminate and that he would much rather kill one and die than kill none and die. If he had proper resources and reinforcements, he would have definitely gone for Alpha or Gamma, since they pose the biggest threat. Although... if he did have the proper resources, he would have just destroyed the ring and be done with it.

'I'll have to do it alone' He thought grimly. The rain stopped shortly after.

He put on his helmet and walked to the entrance to form a plan with Echelon, although... he sort of had an idea about what to do.

"I have a plan." John said. "Its a bit of a risk, but I can't think of anything else." He added.

"I have reason to doubt you because, firstly, we have won a major battle thanks to your efforts. Secondly, because you have the strategy making potential of the Ur-Didact and Iso-Didact . I have confidence that you have come up with a good plan." She said solemnly.

"I don't know if I should be humbled or unnerved by that. Especially since the Ur-Didact tried to Compose humanity just a year ago." John replied.

"Oh, sorry... I should have clarified that I've been comparing you to the Didact before he lost his sanity.The old records of Forerunner-Human war states that most of high ranking Forerunners including the Librarian had proposed to completely exterminate Humanity. The Didact along with the master builder strongly opposed the proposal. But something happened to him during the Flood-Forerunner war. He began to slip. The records states that he had lost it after he escaped his first exile. What exactly happened was a total mystery. Not even his own wife knew." Echelon explained.

John suddenly whited out and started seeing flashes of a large room with many tall figures, everyone of whom he recognised. They were standing around a large holo screen. His vision then shifted to darkness. The darkness was accompanied by almost unbearable mental pain. Thankfully, the pain lasted for only a second as his episode ended. John immediately realised that there was something very wrong and sinister about the darkness as he could have sworn that he heard a very familiar guttural cackle.

"I remember it!" He gasped. "The first Ecumene Council during the Forerunner-Human. She was there. Faber was there." He continued while catching his breath. For some reason, John was slightly annoyed as he mentioned the Master Builder.

"But... that shouldn't be possible. Bornstellar didn't exist at that time. You should only have the Ur-Didact's planning potential... not his memories. Unless..." She mused. "But that doesn't make any sense."

"What doesn't make sense?"

"I was thinking about the possibility that the Librarian, for some reason, chose to implant the Ur-Didact's genesong rather than the Iso-Didact's. But why would she do that. No. That wouldn't be possible since you are able to freely access the ring's system without my authorisation."

"Why do you think it's impossible? " He asked crossing his arms. This was getting way too convoluted for him.

"That's because before his last exile, the Ur-Didact was stripped of his privileges and authority to access most Forerunner facilities. Especially the rings. So you wouldn't even be able to access things like lifts without my permission. But the ring's system immediately responded to your command without needing my verification. Another reason is that the Ur-Didact went insane. I don't think the Librarian would want the reclamation to be led by a mentally insane leader." She answered.

"We'll... discuss about this later. After we've dealt with Delta Gravemind." He told her.

"Agreed. You mentioned that you have a plan." She asked.

"Yes. Here's how we're going terminate Delta. As I told you before It's a bit of a risk, but it's the best I was able to come up with." He said as they went inside.


	10. Into The Storm

**UNSC Infinity**

**Planet Reach**

**Epsilon Eridani** **System**

48 Hours since she and her team were picked up, and more than 48 days since she talked to saw him. That was soon going to change as she nonchalantly made her way to his room, which she found out using her rank. She and her Ferrets were on a far away ONI research station when the Created began their crusade. After they were picked up from said research station, she was immediately debriefed by Admiral Osman. But now that she had gotten her rest and energy back, she was ready to meet him again. Thinking back she reminiscences about their first meeting, the first time they talked, the first time they kissed, the first time they-- Her thoughts were interrupted when she realised that she was standing outside his room. She then proceeded to press the buzzer on the door. Almost immediately the door opened, revealing the person who was on her mind.

"Lieutenant." She said with a small smile.

"Inspector... I heard that you were picked up, didn't believe it until now. Please, come in."

Veta clung to him the second the door was shut and locked. She immediately got on her toes and kissed him like there was no tomorrow, which was a very good possibility for them. Fred was initially taken aback a little bit because of her eagerness, but gave in and began kissing him with the same amount of passion. They kissed for as long as her lung would allow, but eventually they had to break off.

"Thank God you're safe." She said catching her breath.

"When Admiral Osman told me that you were captured, I... I--" She cut off by Fred's lips on her's. This time, Fred used her a surprised gasped and slipped his tongue in. Both of them began to battle for dominance, but alas, Veta had to stop for air.

"Veta, I'm fine. And you being here reduced my worries by sixty percent." He said looking straight into her eyes.

"And the remaining forty percent?" She asked, which made him look towards the door. Veta however immediately realised what the other forty percent was.

"You're worried about him, aren't you?"

"Why did he have to leave... we could've figured something out..." He replied. Veta raised her hand to slowly touch his cheek.

"Fred, both of us are in a room all by ourselves. Please... forget about the galaxy at least for the next hour or so. Please?"

Fred simply looked down at her and grinned.

"Why are you grinning like that?"

"You think one I can go on for **only **an hour?" He asked, still grinning. He was practically able to see the gears turning in her head as she processed his words. The second she was done, Fred noticed mischief in her eyes.

"I didn't mean it like that... buuut, please show me exactly how long you can go for." She replied in a sultry tone. Before they could say anything else, they were both lip locked as their tongues battled for dominance and their hand started exploring each other. Veta had almost undone Fred's belt and Fred was almost done unbuttoning her shirt when--

**bzzzzzzz**

Both of them let out groans of frustration as the door buzzed. Veta quickly buttoned up her shirt and went to the door and Fred moved to the side to buckle his belt. The door opened to reveal Mark, with a shit eating grin on his face.

"Hey mom, didn't expect you to be here."

Veta, poked her head out to check either sides of the hallway.

"Mark, you better have a very good reason to be here." She threatened.

"I do. Admiral Hood wants both the Ferrets and Blue Team suited up and in Hanger number 5 ASAP. We have a mission."

"Alright... we'll be there." She replied and headed back in.

"Who was that?" Fred asked.

"Mark... we have a mission. And by we, I mean Blue Team and the Ferrets. We'll... pick this up after the mission." She replied, saying the other half of the sentence in her sultry tone.

"Good"

**Hanger Bay 5**

"The Infinity will be back in 12 hours. Good luck." Admiral Hood told the two teams, Cortana and Exuberant Witness as they got into their Pelicans.

"I hope this is armour is enough for the cold." Cortana muttered as they descended onto the glassed planet. She was wearing a standard issue UNSC civilian armour.

"It should be fine." Linda replied. "The atmosphere was heavily damaged during the glassing, so there is not that much ice and snow on the poles."

Soon, the pelican landed and its passengers got out.

"Should we try to hide the pelican?" Olivia asked.

"I don't think so, we're not fighting the Covenant." Veta replied.

"Alright. Exuberant, are we directly above the facility?" Cortana questioned.

"It's five about hundred meters in front of you." Exuberant replied. "Please keep walking, I will stop you when we are on top of it."

After a few minutes, they finally reached the place.

"This is the place. Please brace yourselves if you've never been sent through micro slipspace gates."

Bright golden lights engulfed all of them. When the light disappeared, they were a few hundred feet below the ground. Unfortunately, they were a few feet above the floor and landed on their back.

"Is everyone alright?" Fred called out. Everyone nodded.

"The cave systems are confusing and hard to navigate, please stay close to me." Witness requested. The team of eight slowly began to follow her, with Veta and Fred taking the front and Kelly and Linda taking the rear. As they walked, Cortana noticed that Fred and Veta were walking closer to each other then necessary. So she stopped and waited for the two girls.

"Is it just me, or are the two team leaders walking too close to each other?" She asked Linda, who only chuckled.

"That's because they are together."

"I don't get it... I can see that they are walking together."

"By together, she means that they are in a relationship. It's very common for two individuals to fall in love and be in a relationship." Kelly explained.

"Oh... ok" Cortana replied as she walked with the group, but her mind was drawn to a certain Spartan.

'Would he have... No... not after I broke his trust.'

Cortana, in her musings didn't realise that she had lagged behind the girls.

"Cortana?" Kelly called, snapping her from her thoughts.

"Coming!" Cortana replied.

'Now is not the time for that! I shouldn't lose hope.'

After thirty minutes of walking the group finally reached the entrance, which was a tall door with a console beside it.

"Here we are! Let me open the door." Exuberant quickly went to the console and opened the door, and went in. The two teams followed.

"So exactly what are we looking for here?" Olivia asked.

"I don't know... but we should look at the central console." Cortana replied.

"I agree, if the Librarian left something for us, it will definitely in the central console. I think I know where it is." Exuberant floated towards a large hallway. The hallway led to an even larger room with large screens and two consoles in the centre. One was big and the other one was relatively smaller. The small one however was blinking.

"There, the big console in the centre." Exuberant moved to the console and tried to access it, but was locked out.

"It seems that this console is locked. Maybe Cortana can access it?"

Without a word Cortana walked to console, took of her gloves and placed her hand on it. This time it lit up and multiple files opened up.

"There. Let's see what she left us." Cortana murmured as she began looking through all the files. Just after looking through a few, she realised what these files were.

"Blueprints... they are blueprints. But not just any type of blueprints." She said with excitement.

"Okaaay... What do you mean by that?" Veta enquired.

"These are blueprints of weapons and ship upgrade modules, but they are a hybrid of Forerunner technology and current human technology. Which means that we can construct them. Sure, it won't be as powerful as pure Forerunner technology, but it's better than nothing." She replied with exuberance.

"That's good, I guess?" Mark commented.

"Now, all I have to do is transfer it to the portable drive and we should be done here." Cortana opened one of her pouches and took out the drive. She plugged it in and her eyes widened once she saw the transfer time.

"Eleven hours and 49 minutes?! Why is it so long?" She exclaimed.

"That's cutting it very close with our timing. Is there any way we can lessen the time?" Fred asked.

"No, the console is rigged for only one download. Looks like the Librarian didn't want anyone else to be able to use this data." She elaborated.

"Damn it. Why is it that slow? Are the blueprints that big?" Veta questioned.

"The problem here is not the quantity, but the quality. Technological difference. The data has to be first downloaded to the drive and then translated within the drive itself so that it could be read by the Infinity's system." Exuberant stated.

"Why not transfer the data to a Forerunner drive? That would be fast, wouldn't it?" Kelly told her.

"I could do that, but then the computers in the Infinity wouldn't be able to read the contents of the Forerunner storage drive due to port differences." Cortana answered dejectedly. Just then a light bulb turned on in her head.

"Wait a second, Exuberant can you download the contents into your storage drive and transfer them to the Infinity's system?"

"I could... but I am not allowed to, after the Mandicant Bias incident. Strict protocols were put in place. No Monitor is allowed to transport or possess any blueprints or schematics, even if it is temporary. I apologise, but you will have to use your storage drive."

"I understand... guess will have to make do with what we have." Cortana then initiated the download.

"Say, Exuberant. I've heard you use that term before... the 'Mandicant Bias Incident'. What does it mean actually?" Cortana asked. The other members of the group moved closer to her.

"Mandicant Bias was one of, if not the most powerful Ancilla the Forerunners ever created. He was also tasked with managing and utilizing the biggest fleet the Forerunners had. But then, he went rampant and turned on them." She explained.

'Sounds familiar' was the group's collective thought.

"What exactly happened? Can you elaborate. We have a lot of free time." Veta asked.

"Sure! You see, nearing the end of the war Mandicant Bias was tasked with interrogating a Gravemind. But the Gravemind somehow corrupted him, made him go rampant. He synthesised as many ships as he could and used his already large fleet to take over Maethrillian, the Capital city of the Forerunners and the seat of the Ecumene Council. Many of my fellow Ancilla speculated that the Fall of Maethrillian was the reason for our defeat, but, many argue that we never could have won in the first place." She told them.

"What happened next? "Ash asked, clearly drawn in by the story.

"The remaining Forerunners created Offensive Bias, an Ancilla who's sole purpose of defeating Mandicant Bias. Their battle took place in the open space around the Ark. Despite being severely outnumbered, Offensive Bias won. Mandicant's metrix was divided into three portions and sent to three different planets. That was the last we heard from both the Bias'. After that incident, our abilities regarding Schematics and construction were highly limited. That only things we are allowed to have plans of are small and medium sized Sentinels." She explained.

"Huh...That'll take time to process. By the way, do you know why the second terminal is blinking?" Veta asked Exuberant.

"I don't know..." She replied.

"Let me see." Cortana walked to the other, smaller terminal and placed her hand on it like she did with the larger one. This one however, simply flashed once and turned off.

"What was that?" She asked.

"It seemed to have sent out a signal. But don't worry, the signal was very weak to be detected by anyone. Despite of being so close to the emitter, I was barely able to detect it. Seems like this console was damaged or malfunction. But I would recommend not to touch anything else. It would be very bad if we accidentally send out a larger signal." Exuberant advised the two teams.

"Agreed. Ferrets, stay away from the walls and don't touch anything." The inspector commanded.

"Roger."

Unbeknownst to them, the signal contained a message, and it had already reached the ones it was meant for.

**Installation 02**

_'Nomdagro' _

John immediately became hyper aware.

'What the hell was that?'

_"Reclaimer. I detected a sudden spike in your neural cycle. Is everything alright?" _John heard the voice.

"Everything is fine. Just a fluke" He lied "How close am I to Delta?"

_"You should see the coast in a few minutes."_ She replied.

"Good... don't forget, do not send a single Sentinel into Delta's AOI. No matter what" He commanded.

_"Roger."_

Right now, John was standing on top of a SC sentinel crossing the sea to Delta sector. Behind him was a fleet of SC sentinels. The storm was still present, but the weather had improved a bit. A few minutes later, he was finally able to see the coastline.

'This is it..." He thought to himself.

'I hope this plan works.'

_" Reclaimer, the SC sentinel's scanners are telling me that more Corrupted are headed towards you. It seems like Delta knows that you are coming for it. I will command the Spartans to provide as much assistance as they can. The rest is up to you. I should also warn you again that you will be going against pure forms. Please exercise caution. They are much more dangerous than infection forms."_

The Chief responded with a grunt as he equipped his suppressor.

John jumped the moment the Sentinels were above the ground. Within minutes he was being swarmed by pure forms and Corrupted sentinels. John went into his usual fighting style. First was being Calm and strategic and then random and unpredictable when the Flood smartened up. The fight was going his way as he moved forward along with the Spartans. Shoot and slash, shoot and slash... Using his guns and his spear he was getting closer, but his path was blocked by a large cliff.

"Echelon, how will I get to the other side? The boulders are huge and the sentinels are occupied" He asked as he used his spear to impale three category 2 pure forms.

_"Reclaimer, there should be a cave system near the alcove to your immediate left. You'll have to use the cave and come out on the beach present on the other side of the cliff." _

"Understood." He continued on, killing pure forms left right centre and back thanks to his sixth sense, and with the help of the sentinels, the battle was becoming easier by the second.

'Something is not right.' He thought. 'No way it would be this easy, especially when with a Gravemind this close. It must have something planned.'

And it did.

Suddenly, John's entire body stopped moving. It was like he was paralyzed. This was followed up by mental torture, so much so that the pain he went through a few nights ago was like getting a slap on the wrist.

**"Betrayed... Heartbroken... and yet you still fight. Give up... Give in." **

John would recognize that voice anywhere. He wanted to scream and shout. But he couldn't. Each word would increase the pain. He didn't know how long he would be able to stand this torture... this malediction. His vision flashed and darkened. And then his surroundings changed but the torture was still present. He was now kneeling on a bloody floor. He looked to his left and right and saw that he was surrounded and captured by the flood. He then barely managed to look up. What he saw shook him to his core. John was looking straight at a Gravemind. A Gravemind that was different from the others. John brought his head down... he didn't know how long he would survive. Then he saw something else. The reflection on the floor was not of his... It was the reflection of the Ur-Didact. John felt warmth on his back, the warmth that soon turned into searing hot pain. His vision cleared out and he was able to see again, but still couldn't move his body. He realised that he was flying and was about to hit the base of the cliff. And when he did, he blacked out.

To Be Continued...


End file.
